A National Guard soldier has been charged with felony assault, accused of pointing his service gun at another soldier while they were on patrol in Washington, D.C., last month.
Zion Mitchell, 21, of Macon, Ga., drew his handgun and pointed it at a female Guard member during an argument while on patrol on a commercial strip in Washington’s Northeast quadrant, according to a criminal complaint filed in criminal court last week that cited the testimony of the victim and several of Mr. Mitchell’s fellow soldiers.
Mr. Mitchell initially denied drawing his gun, according to the complaint, and said he had a “playful” dispute with the female soldier, but later told investigators he pointed it at a downward angle toward her. The victim told a D.C. police detective that she and Mr. Mitchell had gotten into an argument “over their hairstyles and whether they were following Army regulations.”
The office of Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, charged Mr. Mitchell with two felonies: assault with a dangerous weapon and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. If convicted, Mr. Mitchell could face up to 10 years in prison for the assault charge and up to 15 years for the gun possession charge. The gun possession charge requires a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
Serious crimes committed by members of the military are typically tried through military courts and lawyers instead of the civilian justice system. Ms. Pirro’s office and the National Guard force deployed to Washington did not immediately respond to questions about why Mr. Mitchell had been charged in civilian court.
Mr. Mitchell was not granted bond “due to the nature of the crimes,” and is being held in the D.C. jail, according to court records. Gregory W. Copeland, Mr. Mitchell’s lawyer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Last year, Mr. Trump ordered the deployment of National Guard troops as part of a show of military force in the capital, claiming that he would “rescue” Washington from crime and urban blight, even though violent crime had fallen to a 30-year low. The National Guard troops are armed, typically with M17 handguns, but do not have the power to enforce the law or make arrests.
There are 3,685 National Guard members deployed in the nation’s capital, according to the most recent figures provided by the National Guard. In addition to patrol, they had been tasked with beautifying the city by replanting grass, removing graffiti and picking up bags of trash.
According to the criminal complaint, Mr. Mitchell, the victim and six other members of the National Guard were on patrol on the H Street corridor in Washington on Aug. 25 and stopped to take a break in their van.
A man identified in the complaint as Witness 3 said that Mr. Mitchell “pulled out his service weapon and aimed it at Victim 1,” adding that the gun was loaded. The victim and other witnesses told investigators that one of the National Guard soldiers admonished Mr. Mitchell to holster his weapon.
On Aug. 26, police detectives interviewed the soldiers at the D.C. Armory, the headquarters of the National Guard in Washington. During Mr. Mitchell’s interview, according to the complaint, he at first denied that he had drawn his gun, saying that “he pulled a pistol magazine out of his vest pocket and pointed it at her as part of the playful banter.”
The complaint continued, “During the course of the interview, Suspect Mitchell recanted that version of events, and stated that during the argument, he did pull out his pistol and point it in the direction of Victim 1, but that the pistol was pointed at a roughly 45-degree angle downward and not pointed towards her head.”
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