President Donald Trump has pardoned two D.C. Metro police officers who were convicted for their roles in the death of a man during a pursuit in 2020 and obstructing the ensuing investigation.
Officer Terence Sutton and Lt. Zabavsky were in pursuit in two separate cars of Karon Hylton-Brown, who was riding a rental moped without a helmet at the time, in October 2020 in Northwest D.C. when the 20-year-old crashed into an SUV and was killed. Prosecutors said the pursuit was reckless and the officers covered up what had happened at a time when the city was still tense following riots and protests over the in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The president had said earlier in the week that he planned to issue the pardons for the two officers, Politico reports.
“They arrested the two officers to put them in jail for going after a criminal, a rough criminal, by the way,” the president told reporters Tuesday. “I am the friend of police more than any president that has ever been.”
The two officers were convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice. Sutton was additionally convicted of second-degree murder in Hylton-Brown’s death.
Sutton was sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison and Zabavsky received four years but both were free on appeal when they were pardoned.
