Judge Gives 18 Year Sentence to Carjacker Who Shot Driver

WASHINGTON -Tayvon Owens, 31, of Washington, D.C., has been sentenced to 216 months of incarceration after a jury convicted him in March 2024 of armed carjacking, assault with significant bodily injury while armed, and associated firearms crimes for shooting and carjacking a woman on Newton Street NW, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Chief Pamela A. Smith, of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

According to the evidence presented at trial, in the middle of the afternoon of December 12, 2022, Owens approached the victim, who was sitting in the driver's seat of her parked car on Newton St NW. Owens flung the car door open, pointed his firearm at the victim, and ordered her out of the car. The victim started to comply, but then tried to use the car door to shield herself from Owens and the firearm. Owens pivoted around the car door, shot the victim in the knee, and then pulled her out of the car onto the sidewalk before jumping into her car and driving off.

MPD officers arrived almost immediately, and with the assistance of patrol officers on the ground and MPD's Falcon helicopter in the sky, MPD tracked Owens through the city to the 1400 block of Bangor St SE. There, Owens jumped out of the victim's car while it was still moving, causing it to crash into a tree, and stashed his firearm behind a home before being apprehended by MPD officers.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Graves and Chief Smith commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department. They also commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Bromwich and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Forgie, who prosecuted the case.