A Department of Homeland Security agent shot at an unarmed Black suspect during a traffic stop — and police in Washington, D.C. were told to exclude it from the incident report, according to a recent report that stunned a prominent legal expert.
According to The Washington Post, "On Oct. 17, D.C. police were driving a marked cruiser through Northeast Washington when they spotted a Dodge SUV with dark tinted windows and missing a front tag, according to court records. They were patrolling in collaboration with officers from five federal agencies, including the FBI and Customs and Border Protection, as part of the 'Make DC Safe Again initiative,' court records show."
Police then believed that the suspect, 33-year-old Philip Brown, was trying to flee and shot into the SUV. Brown was fortunately unharmed, and a judge later dismissed all charges, finding no evidence he had attempted to flee.
The police report made no mention of shots fired, said The Post, and a Metropolitan Police Department officer, Jason Sterling, told a court that his superiors had ordered him not to include those details in the record.
The incident outraged American Immigration Council fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a frequent critic of Trump administration immigration enforcement policies that have seen a surge in militarized law enforcement around the country.
"WHOA. A DHS officer shot at a man he thought was fleeing (a judge later dismissed all charges brought) and miraculously didn't hit him. Bullets went into the driver's side window, through his jacket collar, and into the empty passenger seat. Cops were then ordered to cover it up!" wrote Reichlin-Melnick on X Tuesday.
"When asked Monday by The Post about the shooting, police spokesperson Tom Lynch said that the investigation into whether Brown had committed a crime is separate from the investigation into the shooting," noted the report. "D.C. police investigate all police-involved shootings in the District and are investigating the shooting committed by the Homeland Security Investigations officer, Lynch said, but records related to that probe aren’t public. He declined to comment on Sterling’s testimony."