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Press Release

District Man Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison For Shooting In Northeast Washington-Defendant’s Gunfire Hit Innocent Victim, Seriously Wounding Her-

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

     WASHINGTON – Gregory Harris, 24, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to a 10-year prison term on charges stemming from a shooting in Northeast Washington that seriously injured an innocent victim, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.

     Harris pled guilty in April 2014, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, to charges of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. He was sentenced by the Honorable Michael Ryan. Upon completion of his prison term, Harris will be placed on five years of supervised release.

     According to the government’s evidence, the shooting followed a chain of events that began about 8 p.m. on May 24, 2013, outside a liquor store in the 1000 block of Bladensburg Road NE.  When Harris arrived on the scene, he observed a friend of his involved in a physical altercation with another individual. While watching the fight, Harris saw a third person use a firearm to pistol-whip his friend in the head.  He then ran down an adjacent alleyway, and, within a couple of minutes, he returned to Bladensburg Road.

     By the time Harris returned to the street, the fight had stopped. The two men who had been fighting with his friend, and a woman who was not part of the altercation, were close to each other. They were heading south down Bladensburg Road, away from the scene of the fight, and no longer near Harris’s friend. Harris then used a firearm to shoot multiple bullets in the direction of the three people, aiming to hit the person who pistol-whipped his friend.

     Instead, Harris shot the woman, hitting her in the neck and causing her to collapse on the street.  As a result of getting shot in the neck, the victim has been mostly paralyzed below her neck, retaining only limited movement in her left arm.

     In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen commended the work of those who investigated the case for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). He also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Paralegal Specialist Kalisha Johnson-Clark, Victim/Witness Specialists Jennifer Clark and David Foster, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Clayton O'Connor, who prosecuted the matter.

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Updated February 19, 2015