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Press Release

District Man Pleads Guilty To Felony Charges In Armed Robbery And Shooting-One Of The Victims Shot Multiple Times, Yet Survived-

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Columbia

     WASHINGTON –Darius Joshua, 19, of Washington, D.C., has pled guilty to charges stemming from a 2011 shooting in the Congress Park community of Southeast Washington, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced today.

     Joshua pled guilty on Jan. 7, 2013 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to charges of aggravated assault, attempted robbery, and carrying a pistol without a license. The Honorable William M. Jackson scheduled sentencing for March 1, 2013. 

     According to the government’s evidence, on June 21, 2011, at about 11 p.m., Joshua ambushed a man and a woman with a loaded handgun as the victims walked through a shortcut next to what used to be McGogney Elementary School in the 3400 block of Wheeler Road SE. He ordered the woman to the ground and put the gun to her head before robbing her and telling her to leave the scene. Joshua ordered the man to stay behind and then he shot him multiple times. The victim was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery and survived the attack.

     In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Machen commended the efforts of the detectives of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Seventh District who investigated the case, as well as the members of the community whose cooperation led to the defendant’s prosecution.  He also thanked those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Jim Brennan, Tanya Via, Laverne Forrest, Debra Cannon, and Michael Hailey of the Victim Witness Assistance Unit; Paralegal Specialists D’Yvonne Key and Richard Cheatham, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mervin A. Bourne, Jr., who investigated and prosecuted the case.

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Updated February 19, 2015