District Man Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison For Armed Carjacking on Christmas Eve and Other Offenses

            WASHINGTON – Andy Thompson, 23, was sentenced today to 18 years in prison for various crimes, including a carjacking of a delivery truck on Christmas Eve 2014 and a subsequent shoot-out with police, Acting U.S. Attorney Vincent H. Cohen, Jr., announced.

            Thompson, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty in April 2015, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, to four counts: armed carjacking, assault on a police officer while armed, attempted robbery, and attempted burglary.  He was sentenced by the Honorable Zoe Bush.  Upon completion of his prison term, Thompson will be placed on six years of supervised release.

            The armed carjacking and confrontation with police took place on Dec. 24, 2014.  According to the government’s evidence, at approximately 5:20 p.m., Thompson put on a mask and approached a FedEx employee making deliveries in the 1300 block of Adams Street NE. Thompson pointed a gun at the driver and demanded that he leave the FedEx truck. The driver complied, and Thompson drove away in the FedEx vehicle. An officer with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) spotted the vehicle almost immediately and attempted to pull it over.  Thompson refused to pull over and fled into an alleyway off the 2200 block of 16^th Street NE.  There, the FedEx truck became wedged between an exterior brick wall and a police cruiser.

            When the police ordered Thompson to display his hands and exit the vehicle, he pointed his gun at the police officers and fired.  The police returned fire.  Thompson was the only person struck in the exchange of gunfire, with a bullet grazing him in the head.  The police recovered a 9mm handgun next to where the stolen truck was stopped.

            The other crimes targeted convenience stores. The attempted robbery took place at about 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 16, 2014 at a 7-Eleven convenience store in the 300 block of Hawaii Avenue NE.  Thompson approached a store employee, asked that new milk be placed in the coffee machine, and then reached behind the counter and stole four cartons of cigarettes. He smacked at the hand of a second employee who tried to stop him.

            The attempted burglary took place at about 8 a.m. on June 29, 2013, at another 7-Eleven store, this time in the 2200 block of New York Avenue NE. Thompson took multiple packs of cigarettes from the store.  In pleading guilty, he admitted that he stole cartons of cigarettes from four different 7-Eleven stores on 11 different occasions.

            In announcing the sentence, Acting U.S. Attorney Cohen commended the work of those who investigated the case for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). He also expressed appreciation for the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christine Macey and Gilead Light, of the Felony Major Crimes Trial Section, who prosecuted the matters.