Ex-Pentagon Officer Sentenced In Takoma Park Fatal Shootings

TAKOMA PARK, MD — An off-duty police officer for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency who fired gunshots at people he thought were breaking into a parked van at his apartment complex has been sentenced in the deaths of two of the victims.

David Hall Dixon, 42, of Takoma Park, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday in Montgomery County Circuit Court, according to the county State’s Attorney’s Office. On Sept. 14 he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree assault for shooting at a third victim, prosecutors said in a news release.

Dixon fired five shots into a car in the parking lot of the Takoma Park Overlook Condominiums early on April 7, 2021, WTOP reported. The bullets fatally struck 38-year-old James Johnson and 32-year-old Dominique Williams.

Dixon was not wearing a police uniform at the time, police said.

“I am remorseful. I’ll be remorseful for the rest of my life,” Dixon said in court, WTOP reported. “I take full responsibility for my actions. I instinctively reacted, given my law enforcement training. I’m sorry to the families. My heart aches for the families.”

He told the court he’s always tried to live up to the responsibilities as a law enforcement officer. “On April 7, I failed. I have the deepest sense of remorse for the families.”

Nothing will bring his cousin back, said Joseph Johnson, James Johnson’s cousin, who spoke on behalf of the family.

“I can go to the grave, I can sit there, I can talk to him — but he can’t talk back to me. He can’t talk back to me,” Montgomery Community Media reported.

County State’s Attorney John McCarthy told MCM the April 7 shooting “was not the first time — based on the presentation we made of evidence here today — that this particular officer had essentially run afoul of the law.”

Dixon had assaulted a homeless woman inside the building at the same location in May 2020, McCarthy said.