Man Gets 29-Year Sentence in Attack on Off-Duty Police Officer

Attack Took Place in Attempted Robbery at Gas Station

WASHINGTON—Eddie L. Mathis, Jr., 38, was sentenced today to 29 years of incarceration for attempting to rob an off-duty Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer and then shooting the officer in a December 2003 attack at a Washington, D.C. gas station, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.

Mathis, of Fredericksburg, Va., was convicted in July 2010 following a week-long trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The jury found him guilty of assault with intent to commit robbery while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, carrying a dangerous weapon, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon. Mathis was sentenced by the Honorable Judge Lynn Leibovitz.

Evidence presented at trial established that off-duty MPD Officer Devinci Wooden was driving home in the late evening of December 18, 2003 when he stopped to fill his gas tank at an Exxon station at the intersection of Alabama and Pennsylvania Avenues SE. Several people were nearby. Wooden, who was in plain clothes, was standing at the pump when he was approached by Mathis, who had a loaded .45-caliber pistol in his hand, and an accomplice who has never been identified. The assailants demanded that Wooden empty his pockets. Mathis pointed a gun at Wooden and said something to the effect of "Don't move or I'll bust you."

Concerned that they would find his badge hanging around his neck under his jacket and kill him, Wooden ran to the other side of his vehicle and announced he was a police officer. Instead of surrendering or fleeing the scene like his accomplice, Mathis chose to escalate the situation.

Mathis began shooting at the officer, while surrounded by highly flammable gas tanks and fumes, with other innocent patrons and employees in the immediate area. The officer fired back in self-defense. During the shootout that ensued, Mathis shot Wooden through the foot, and Wooden shot Mathis in his right waist. Though Mathis escaped from the gas station that night, several citizens came forward and helped law enforcement authorities find a nearby apartment where Mathis was staying at the time. There, he had discarded his bullet-riddled and bloody clothing.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen commended the work of MPD Detectives Mitchell Credle, Konstantinos Giannakoulias, Carlos Hilliard, Stephen McDonald, and Darryl Richmond, Sixth District MPD Officers Michael Tucker (Retired) and David White, and MPD Crime Scene Technicians Grant Greenwalt, Richard Griffin, and Tony Nwani. He also acknowledged the work of FBI special agents as well as Criminal Investigators Christopher Brophy and Melissa Matthews and Intelligence Research Specialist Lawrence Grasso, all of the U.S. Attorney's Office. He also praised U.S. Attorney's Office Paralegal Mariam Russell and Litigation Technology Specialists Joe Calvarese, Leif Hickling, and Thomas Royal. Finally, he thanked U.S. Attorneys Ann M. Carroll and Sean P. Tonolli for investigating and indicting the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tonolli and Steven Swaney for trying the case.