Jury Finds Man Guilty in Shooting at Social Club Which Left an NFL Prospect Paralyzed

            WASHINGTON – Roger Lee Jones, 42, of Washington, D.C., was found guilty by a Superior Court jury, on April 7, 2025, of one count of assault with intent to kill while armed and other related charges, for shooting a man in retaliation for an earlier dispute at a social club. The verdict was announced U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr. and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and followed a two week trial.

            The jury also found Jones guilty of three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, one count of aggravated assault while armed, one count of assault with a dangerous weapon, one count of carrying a pistol without a license, one count of unauthorized use of a vehicle, one count of simple assault, one count of fleeing a law enforcement officer, and one count of threats. Superior Court Judge Danya A. Dayson scheduled sentencing for June 13, 2025.

            According to the evidence presented at trial, on January 22, 2022, Victim 1 was working as a security guard at Kick Axe Throw Social located in Northeast, DC. Jones was a patron there with his ex-girlfriend and child’s mother, Victim 2. At the establishment, Jones got into an argument with Victim 2, took the keys to Victim 2’s vehicle, and left the bar with the keys.  After Jones left the bar, Victim 2 called Jones to ask for the return of her vehicle. 

            At approximately 12:10 a.m., Jones returned to the front of Kick Axe Throw Social where Victim 2 was waiting. Jones refused to return the keys or the vehicle, and then violently attacked Victim 2 by punching her multiple times in the face.  Security staff intervened and stopped Jones’s assault.  In response, Jones made threatening statements to the security staff, then left the scene in Victim 2’s vehicle. Victim 1 was not one of the security staff who broke up the fight.

            After leaving Kick Axe Throw Social, Jones called an accomplice, who drove to the defendant’s location. Jones and the accomplice then drove back to Kick Axe using the accomplice’s vehicle. 

            Meanwhile, Victim 2 traveled to her home and called Jones to again ask him to return her vehicle. Jones replied by telling Victim 2 to stay where she was and that he was coming to kill her. 

            At 1:07 a.m., as Victim 1 was standing by the trunk of his car preparing to leave Kick Axe Throw Social, Jones approached Victim 1 from behind and fired seven shots at him from close range. Victim 1 suffered gunshot wounds to his chest and back and was paralyzed immediately from the waist down. Prior to the incident, Victim 1 was a National Football League (NFL) prospect. The defendant and the accomplice then fled the scene in the accomplice’s vehicle.

            At approximately 1:54 a.m., as police officers with the Metropolitan Police Department were assisting Victim 2 by her residence, Victim 2 and the officers spotted her vehicle being operated with its headlights off.  Officers immediately began to follow the vehicle with emergency equipment activated, but Jones refused to comply with officer commands to stop the vehicle. Jones was able to make good his escape.

            Jones was identified through surveillance footage, cell phone tracking data, vehicle data, and ballistics evidence linking the gun used in this incident to a shooting committed on February 19, 2022, by the accomplice.

            In announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Martin and Chief Smith commended the work of officers and detectives of the Metropolitan Police Department who investigated the case. They also commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward Dunn and Benjamin Helfand, who investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren Miller and Travis Wolf, who prosecuted the case at trial.