Trump pardons 2 D.C. officers convicted in 2020 death and cover-up of Hylton-Brown

President Donald Trump has granted a full pardon to two D.C. police officers sentenced in the death and coverup of a Black man during a police chase in 2020.

The officers pardoned are Terence D. Sutton Jr., a police officer of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) fourth district, and Andrew Zabavsky, a MPD lieutenant. Both were found guilty in circumstances related to the death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown.

Sutton had been found guilty of second-degree murder, and both officers were found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice, according to a statement released the day of the sentencing by the Justice Department.

On October 2020, the officers observed Hylton-Brown driving a moped, helmetless, on a sidewalk in the Brightwood Park area of Northwest Washington. He ignored officers attempts to stop him and drove off. Sutton then began chasing him on neighborhood streets for over more than 10 blocks, at unreasonable speeds, and at one point proceeding the wrong way up a one-way street, according to the statement.

In the pursuit’s final moments, Sutton followed Hylton-Brown into a narrow alley, turned off his car’s emergency lights and siren, and accelerated behind the moped. When the man reached the street at the mouth of the alley, he was struck by an uninvolved oncoming motorist.

“As Mr. Hylton-Brown lay unconscious in the street in a pool of his own blood, Sutton and Zabavsky, agreed to cover up what Sutton had done to prevent any further investigation of the incident,” said the release. “Neither Sutton, as the lead officer at the scene, nor Zabavsky, the ranking MPD official, preserved the crash scene for investigators; they allowed the driver of the car that struck Hylton-Brown to leave the scene within 20 minutes of the crash. They then turned off their own body worn cameras, conferred privately, and left.”

Both officers had been serving sentences related to the crimes, including a 66-month sentence for Sutton. Trump, in an Executive Grant of Clemency, has awarded both former officers and full, unconditional pardon.