President Donald Trump of the United States pardoned two Washington police officers on Wednesday who were found guilty of killing Karon Hylton-Brown, a 20-year-old Black man, in 2020.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
Terence Sutton Jr. received a sentence of 66 months in prison in September 2024, while Andrew Zabavsky received a sentence of 48 months for an illegal police pursuit that resulted in a collision on October 23, 2020, in Northwest Washington, D.C., that killed Karon Hylton-Brown. The White House said the cops were still at liberty while their appeals were being processed.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, Zabavsky, who is in his mid-50s, and Sutton, who is in his early 40s, are on indefinite unpaid suspension while the administration process is ongoing. In late 2022, following a nine-week trial, a unanimous federal jury found Sutton guilty of second-degree murder, conspiracy to impede, and obstruction of justice.
Zabavsky was convicted of conspiracy to impede and obstruction of justice by the same jury. The jury concluded that Sutton drove a police car with deliberate disregard for Hylton-Brown’s grave risk of death or serious injury, which resulted in Hylton-Brown’s death. Additionally, it was discovered that Sutton and Zabavsky plotted to conceal from authorities the details of the traffic accident that killed Hylton-Brown.
For the two officers, the DC Police Union has requested a pardon. Kellen Dwyer, Sutton’s lawyer, said in a statement that he and his client were happy that President Trump put a definitive stop to this prosecution, even though they were sure the D.C. Circuit would have overturned this conviction. When Hylton-Brown’s mother, Karen Hylton, heard about the possible pardons, she sobbed and expressed shock.
The event took place months after a Minneapolis police officer killed a Black man named George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for several minutes. Protests against racial disparity and police violence were sparked by that murder both domestically and internationally. Remember how Trump pardoned over 1,500 of his followers who invaded the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, four years ago after taking office on Monday?
