Source: Office of United States Attorneys
WASHINGTON – Traquon Demonte McCalip, 21, of Washington D.C., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 114 months in federal prison for unlawfully possessing a Canik T9SF Elite 9mm handgun and using it to shoot a victim in the middle of the day at a busy fast-food restaurant parking lot on the 3900 block of Minnesota Avenue NE.
The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean T. Ryan of the Washington Field Office’s Criminal and Cyber Division, and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
McCalip pleaded guilty on August 23, 2024, to unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a person convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year and to aggravated assault while armed. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta ordered McCalip to serve five years of supervised release.
According to court documents, on March 20, 2024, McCalip approached an individual standing in a fast-food parking lot on the 3900-block of Minnesota Avenue NE, and claimed that he wanted to buy cigarettes from him. After discussing cigarette prices, McCalip attempted to take the individual’s bag. McCalip then drew his loaded, concealed handgun and shot the individual in the abdomen. As a struggle ensued between McCalip and the victim, McCalip spotted a marked police vehicle that had arrived on scene. McCalip took his firearm’s magazine that had fallen out of his gun, and fled in a vehicle that he had parked in the lot with his firearm’s magazine but left behind his firearm. Police chased McCalip and ultimately arrested him near 1805 Bladensburg Road NE. Officers recovered the firearm magazine and ammunition on the driver’s seat of the car McCalip was driving.
This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington Field Office. It was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Ethan Cantor of the Department of Justice.
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