Prosecutors argued Eduardo Valdivia pulled his gun out too soon; the agent said he fired in self-defense.
Prosecutors argued that Eduardo Valdivia pulled his gun out too soon; the agent said he fired in self defense.Surveillance video from the inside of a Metro train car shows FBI Agent Eduardo Valdivia shooting a fellow passenger who had confronted him on Dec. 15, 2020. An FBI agent was acquitted of attempted second-degree murder and other counts Friday by a Maryland jury that found he was justified in shooting a panhandler who had confronted him aboard a moving Metro train outside Washington, D.C.
The four-day trial, held in Montgomery County Circuit Court, turned on surveillance video from the interior of a Red Line train on Dec. 15, 2020 — and whether the agent’s use of deadly force was justified in self-defense or was an overreaction that escalated too quickly. On that morning, Valdivia was seated in a nearly empty train around 6:30 a.m. when he was approached by a man who was panhandling and got into a verbal altercation with him. The men eventually stood facing each other, just inches apart, exchanging words that were not picked up by the recording.Prosecutors built their case around the notion that Valdivia, even if he felt threatened, failed to take steps to defuse the situation. He didn’t tell the man he was an FBI agent.
“Maryland law permits anybody — any ordinary guy on his way to work — to defend himself against the threat of imminent bodily harm,” said Robert Bonsib, one of Valdivia’s attorneys, during opening statements.After the verdict was read Friday, Bonsib reiterated that the agent “had a right to go home to his wife and kids.”Bonsib said one of the first decisions jurors would have had to make was whether his client was acting reasonably.
“This case was never a case,” Bonsib said. “It should never have been brought. We said that from the very start.”
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