The U.S. Park Police officer shot Monday in D.C.’s Marshall Heights neighborhood, in what police described as an ambush, was following a man who had been released from custody the same day, according to charging documents.
Asheile Foster, 22, and his 21-year-old brother, Darren Foster, are both charged in the shooting.
The officer was hit in the left shoulder, treated at the hospital and has since been released.
Charging documents say Asheile was arrested on a drug possession charge Sunday and released the following day. He returned to Park Police’s Anacostia facility Monday evening to pick up his belongings.
As he left the station, officers followed him to conduct surveillance for a separate case — a shooting that occurred Friday in D.C. According to court documents, Asheile is a person of interest in that case and police wanted to pin down his address to execute a search warrant.
Members of Park Police’s Major Crimes Unit followed Asheile from the Anacostia station to 51st Street SE in Marshall Heights, which is about a 20-minute drive. The officer who was shot was driving the lead surveillance vehicle — an unmarked, white Tesla Model Y.
Moments after arriving to the area of 51st Street and Drake Place (also known as Queen’s Stroll Place), the officer was shot and transmitted over police radio: “Shots fired … I’m hit, but I am good.”
Police recovered more than 30 shell casings from the scene.
Suspect knew he was being followed
According to an interview with the family member who picked up Asheile from the police station Monday, which court documents later refer to as “Witness 1,” Asheile knew he was being followed after he left the station.
As the pair were traveling on D.C. Route 295 northbound, the driver noticed the white Tesla following them and alerted Asheile. When they reached Benning Road, close to their final destination in Marshall Heights, the driver saw police vehicles and wanted to stop, but Asheile told the driver, “No [relationship redacted] don’t stop,” court documents state.
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Asheile’s brother Darren was outside, according to the documents, waiting for his brother to arrive in the area of 51st Street and Drake Place SE. Darren told police he had gotten a call informing him that his brother was being followed and to come outside.
Once his brother arrived, followed by the Tesla, Darren told police he went to investigate why the Tesla was following his brother and that suddenly, gunshots came from the Tesla. Darren denied having a gun or firing any shots.
According to charging documents, police conducted a round count on the duty pistol of the officer who was driving the Tesla — the same officer who was shot — and there were no rounds missing.
Detectives then played Darren surveillance footage from the scene that showed him walking into the street to confront the Tesla, at which point Darren agreed the man shown in the footage was him. But when detectives zoomed in on the footage at the moment he appears to fire gunshots toward the Tesla, Darren then told police it was not actually him in the footage.
The officer who was shot told investigators he remembers a man banging on the hood of his Tesla in an attempt to try and stop it from passing, at which point the officer swerved around him. It was then that the officer heard shots and was struck by gunfire, charging documents state.
According to the documents, another individual at the scene then handed a rifle to Asheile as the officer in the Tesla was driving away, and Asheile fired numerous rounds.
After searching the home associated with the brothers, police found a rifle, 9mm pistol and ammunition consistent with the casings recovered from the scene of the shooting. Both are charged with the federal crime of assault on a federal officer, and several D.C. assault and weapons-related charges.
The brothers made their first court appearance Wednesday before a federal judge, who ordered them held without bond.
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