President Trump on Wednesday pardoned two D.C. police officers who were convicted in connection with a fatal collision with a moped during a pursuit by law enforcement.
A jury found D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Andrew Zabavsky guilty of conspiracy to obstruct and obstructing justice after he plotted with another officer to conceal the circumstances of a 2020 traffic crash that resulted the death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown.
Trump bestowed on him a “full and unconditional pardon,” wiping away the conviction that resulted in a four-year prison sentence. However, Zabavsky was allowed to remain free on bond as he appealed his conviction.
The other officer, Terence Sutton, was convicted of second-degree murder and the obstruction counts. The case marked the first time a D.C. police officer was charged with murder in the department’s history, according to local network WUSA.
Federal prosecutors said Sutton chased Hylton-Brown at high speeds and followed him into a narrow alley in the pursuit’s final moments, turning off his vehicle’s emergency lights and siren and accelerating behind him.
Hylton-Brown was then hit by an uninvolved oncoming motorist on the street at the edge of the alley, and while he laid unconscious in a pool of his own blood, Sutton and Zabavsky agreed to cover up what Sutton had done to stave off further investigation, the government said.
Jurors determined Sutton, who was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, caused Hylton-Brown’s death by consciously disregarding the “extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury” to the young Black man as he pursued him in his police vehicle, according to prosecutors. He was also allowed to remain free on bond while appealing the guilty verdict.
“Public safety requires public trust,” former U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves said in September statement after their sentencing. “Crimes like this erode that trust and are a disservice to the community and the thousands of officers who work incredibly hard, within the bounds of the Constitution, to keep us safe.”
Hylton-Brown’s death came on the heels of George Floyd’s police killing in Minneapolis and spurred local protests at the time.
Trump in recent days alluded to the clemency he intended to grant the two officers.
“I’m going to be letting two officers from Washington police D.C., I believe they’re from D.C., but I just approved it,” Trump said Tuesday, questioned about his loyalty to police after pardoning nearly all Jan. 6 defendants, including those who attacked law enforcement.
“I am the friend of police more than any president who’s ever been in this office,” he said.
