David Hall Dixon
David Hall Dixon, 42, of Takoma Park, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday in Montgomery County Circuit Court, per the county State’s Attorney’s Office.
On the morning of April 7, 2021, Dixon fired shots at a car in the parking lot of his apartment complex in the 7000 block of New Hampshire Avenue. His bullets struck two of the car’s occupants, James Johnson, 38, and Dominique Williams, 32. Both men died of their injuries.
Dixon, an off-duty police officer for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, thought the people in the vehicle were attempting to break into a parked van. According to police, he was not wearing a police uniform.
James Johnson
On Sept. 14 of this year, Dixon pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Johnson and Williams. He was also charged with one count of first-degree assault for shooting at a third victim. He pleaded guilty to that charge as well.
“There’s nothing that I can say to bring my cousin back,” said Joseph Johnson, James Johnson’s cousin, who spoke on behalf of the family during a media briefing following Thursday’s hearing.
“I can go to the grave, I can sit there, I can talk to him — but he can’t talk back to me. He can’t talk back to me.”
County State’s Attorney John McCarthy and Assistant State’s Attorney George Simms prosecuted the case against Dixon.
Dominique Williams.
McCarthy said the April 7 shooting “was not the first time — based on the presentation we made of evidence here today — that this particular officer had essentially run afoul of the law.” Dixon had assaulted a homeless woman inside the building at the same location in May 2020, McCarthy said.
Photos via Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
