BALTIMORE (AP) 鈥� Baltimore prosecutors on Wednesday announced the arrest of a man in the cold case homicide of an off-duty Washington, D.C., police officer in 2017.
The officer, Sgt. Tony Anthony Mason Jr., was while sitting in a parked car with a woman he had been dating, according to police. She was also shot but survived.
The case sat unsolved for five years until detectives received a tip in early 2023 that reinvigorated their investigation and led to charges against Dion Thompson, 24, prosecutors said in a news release Wednesday. Thompson, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, is currently serving time in a federal prison on unrelated drug and gun charges.
An attorney representing Thompson in that matter said he isn鈥檛 representing him in the murder case, which wasn’t listed yet in online records.
His charging documents in the 2017 shooting don鈥檛 include a clear statement of motive and they鈥檙e based almost entirely on the account of someone who knew Thompson but didn鈥檛 directly witness the crime. The person said Thompson admitted to shooting up a parked car because as he was leaving his friend鈥檚 grandmother鈥檚 house, he spotted a vehicle whose occupants he didn鈥檛 recognize and became paranoid, assuming they 鈥渨ere there to either rob him or retaliate against him for all the robberies he was committing,鈥� according to the charging documents.
Thompson learned later from watching the news that the victim was an off-duty police officer, the witness told detectives. Thompson then drove to Philadelphia to get rid of the vehicle he was driving the night of the shooting, prosecutors allege.
The charging documents reference two other people who were allegedly involved in the shooting. One later died in a car crash. Officials said no one else has yet been charged in the case.
Mason, 40, was a 17-year veteran of Washington鈥檚 Metropolitan Police Department.
Detectives noted that he was unarmed during the attack and wasn鈥檛 wearing any clothing to identify himself as a law enforcement officer. They said extensive background checks for both Mason and his companion turned up no signs of criminal or gang activity.
鈥淔or far too long, the details surrounding Sergeant Mason鈥檚 tragic death have remained a painful mystery,鈥� said Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith. 鈥淲hile we cannot erase the pain of loss or the memories of that day, we can take solace in the fact that the person responsible is being brought to justice.鈥�
Baltimore State鈥檚 Attorney Ivan Bates said this will be the first prosecution brought by his office鈥檚 new cold case unit.
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