DC police officer charged with DWI after crash
WASHINGTON - A high-ranking D.C. police officer has been arrested and charged with DWI after police say he caused an accident Sunday night on Interstate 295.
According to a police report, D.C. Police Capt. Paul Shelton was off duty and in his personal car when he caused a chain reaction collision at around 6:30 p.m. as he was traveling southbound on I-295.
The report stated Shelton was traveling too close to the vehicle in front of him and when he approached the intersection of southbound I-295 and Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, the vehicles in front of him slowed for a disabled car on the right shoulder. That is when Shelton slammed into the rear of a U.S. government Mercury Mountaineer, which then slid into a Honda vehicle.
No one was hurt, but the report says officers on the scene suspected Shelton was under the influence and took him into custody. He was given a breathalyzer test and was found to have a blood alcohol content of .10, just slightly over the legal limit of 0.08.
FOX 5 reached out to Capt. Shelton and he confirmed he had been in an accident, but declined to confirm he had been arrested. However, D.C. police have confirmed his arrest and his police powers have been revoked.
Shelton is assigned to the Seventh District in Ward 8 and has been on the force since the early 1990s.
Shelton was shot in April of 1997 while off-duty with another officer who was killed. Shelton suffered gunshot wounds to his feet while his friend, Robert Johnson, was killed. The two officers were shot during an altercation with two other men who opened fire on the officers following a dispute.
Police arrested two men, one who was 17 years old at the time, and both were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.