District Man Pleads Guilty to Charges In Shooting at Anacostia Metro Station

            WASHINGTON – Demetri Goldsmith, 18, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty today to charges stemming from the shooting of a teenage girl last spring near the Anacostia Metro station, announced U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips, Ron Pavlik, Chief of the Metro Transit Police, and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            Goldsmith pled guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to charges of assault with significant bodily injury and unlawful possession of a firearm. The assault charge carries a statutory maximum of three years in prison and the firearms charge carries up to 10 years. The Honorable Danya A. Dayson scheduled sentencing for Oct. 19, 2016. Goldsmith has been in custody since his arrest three days after the shooting.

            According to the government’s evidence, on Sunday, May 29, 2016, during Memorial Day weekend, Goldsmith was at the Anacostia Metro station in the 1100 block of Howard Rod SE. At approximately 7:30 p.m., he was talking to the 16-year-old victim near the station’s entrance. He pulled a firearm from his jacket and fired in the direction of the girl, shooting her in the left leg.  This action was intentional and not by mistake or accident. Goldsmith put the firearm back in his jacket and biked away.  The victim was taken to a hospital.

            At the time of this shooting, Goldsmith was on probation for an earlier conviction involving a robbery that took place in April 2015 in Northeast Washington. He was charged as an adult in that case and pled guilty in May 2015 to robbery. He was sentenced in September 2015 to 24 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. However, that time was suspended on the condition that he successfully complete 18 months of supervised probation. He now faces the revocation of his probation in that case.

            In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Phillips, Chief Pavlik, and Chief Lanier commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metro Transit Police and the Metropolitan Police Department. They also expressed appreciation for the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Victim/Witness Advocate Diana Lim and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brittany A. Keil, who investigated and prosecuted the case.