WASHINGTON – Walter Parker, 28, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to nine years in prison on a federal firearms charge, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Robert J. Contee III, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Parker was found guilty by a jury in February 2022, following a trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, of illegal possession of a weapon by a felon. He was sentenced by the Honorable Trevor N. McFadden. Following his prison term, Parker will be placed on three years of supervised release.
On April 10, 2019, at about 6 p.m., an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department observed Parker take a gun out of his waistband and put it inside a dumpster outside of an apartment building in the 3600 block of Hayes Street NE. After discarding the loaded gun, Parker then ran from officers. The firearm was recovered and determined to be a 9-millimeter, semi-automatic pistol, loaded with one round of ammunition in the chamber and 11 in the magazine.
At the time of this offense, Parker was on probation on a Maryland charge of robbery with a dangerous weapon. He also had prior convictions in the District of Columbia for robbery and fleeing a law enforcement officer.
Following his arrest in this case, Parker was placed on pre-trial release. However, he failed to abide by conditions of release and was ordered to surrender in May 2020. He did not surrender or return to Court until he was arrested in August 2020 on unrelated charges. He has been in custody ever since.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Graves and Chief Contee commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department. They also expressed appreciation for the work of those who handled the case at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Berridge and Jeffrey Poulin, Supervisory Litigation Technology Specialist Leif Hickling, Supervisory Paralegal Specialist Teesha Tobias, and Paralegal Specialists Kate Abrey, Alexis Spencer-Anderson, Genevieve de Guzman, Donville Drummond, and Rhonda Richardson.
Finally, they commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary L. Dohrmann and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily (Meg) Ariotti, who prosecuted the matter.