ROCKVILLE, Md. — An FBI agent who shot a man in a confrontation aboard a DC Metrorail train in December 2020 has been acquitted of attempted second-degree murder and related charges.
A jury returned the verdict on Friday, the Washington Post reports, concluding a four-day trial in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Eduardo Valdivia, 38, had faced up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges for shooting a panhandler who confronted him in a shooting on Dec. 15, 2020 [see “Digest: FBI agent charged in shooting …,” Trains News Wire, June 2, 2021]. He had also been charged with first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and use of a firearm in commission of a felony.
The man who was shot — spending five days in the hospital after being struck in the arm and torso — reportedly threatened Valdivia. Prosecutors built their case around the idea that Valdivia failed to take steps to diffuse the situation, with one telling jurors that Valdivia “had no business firing a gun.”
But jurors needed only about three hours to return the not guilty verdict.
Montgomery County, Maryland next to the swamp and home to many swamp “workers.”
Thus…..
The writer DID mean defuse, not diffuse, eh?
Sounds more like assault on a Police Officer rather than what the Special Agent was charged with.