District Man Sentenced to Three Years in Prison For Robbing School Teacher at Knifepoint

            WASHINGTON - Rayshawn Tillery, 21, of Washington, D.C., has been sentenced to three years in prison for robbing an elementary school teacher at knifepoint near Union Station last spring as the teacher walked home from school, Acting United States Attorney Vincent H. Cohen announced today.

            Tillery pled guilty in June 2015, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, to a charge of robbery.  The Honorable Neal E. Kravitz sentenced him on Oct. 2, 2015. Following his prison term, Tillery will be placed on three years of supervised release.

            According to the government’s evidence, the victim, a fifth grade social studies teacher, was walking home from school on May 1, 2015 carrying a backpack that contained his students’ papers for grading at home.  As he cut through an alley behind a block of row houses on Capitol Hill, two men approached him and demanded his backpack.  When the teacher refused to part with his backpack, Tillery pulled out a knife, telling the teacher, “You’re gonna’ give us your bag or we’re going to cut you!”  Upon seeing the weapon, the teacher gave up his backpack.

            The robbers fled down the alley, where they were confronted by two Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers on bicycle patrol.  The officers pursued the robbers through the alleyways and apprehended Tillery.  The knife was later found in Tillery’s sock.  The second robber escaped with the teacher’s backpack and the schoolchildren’s work.

            During the sentencing hearing, the victim expressed to the Court the fear he felt when the defendant threatened him with the knife.

            In announcing the sentence, Acting U.S. Attorney Cohen commended the work performed by the detectives of the First District and especially the officers of the Bicycle Unit of the Metropolitan Police Department.  In addition, he commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Dineen A. Baker, who prosecuted the case.