A victim testified about a confrontation over an electric vehicle charging port that escalated into a shooting before DC Superior Court Justice Danya Dayson on Oct. 8.
Ato Ocran, 46, is charged with assault with intent to kill while armed, aggravated assault knowingly while armed, two counts assault with a dangerous weapon, four counts possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, five counts possession of an unregistered firearm, destruction of property of $1000 or more, and carrying a pistol without a license outside the home. The charges stem from his alleged involvement in a shooting on the 2200 block of 13th Street, NE, on June 3.
Prosecutors brought the victim to the stand to testify about events leading up to the shooting. The victim said that he had interacted with a man driving a blue Tesla, who prosecutors allege is Ocran, on three occasions. The interactions centered on a public electric vehicle charging station in the parking lot of a Giant in the Rhode Island Place shopping mall. Both men would often leave their electric cars at the port to charge.
The victim described the first two interactions as non-confrontational, saying at one point that the suspect had a “kill him with kindness type attitude.” The victim explained the man with the Tesla may have been abusing the two-hour limit on the charging station, but had no serious problem with him until June 3, when the suspect allegedly switched the charger from the victim’s Nissan Leaf to his Tesla.
The victim testified that he and his partner had just returned home after dropping off the Nissan Leaf to charge when she got a notification on her phone that the car was no longer charging.
She was “just getting comfortable, probably ready to take a nap,” when she got the notification, the victim said. The victim stated that he drove to the charging station in his partner’s Jeep Liberty to plug it back in when he and the suspect quickly got into a fight.
“We threw punches simultaneously,” the victim said. He also testified to hearing the suspect say, “over a charger, you want to die over a charger?”
The victim testified that these statements led him to believe that the suspect had a gun.
Prosecutors played footage of the two men throwing punches and the victim disappearing out of frame before returning with a golf club. The suspect could be seen opening his trunk. The victim testified that he continued to approach the suspect because he believed he was trying to retrieve a gun from the Tesla.
The witness explained he signed an agreement with prosecutors that protected him from self-incrimination during his testimony. He further clarified that only his testimony was protected in the immunity agreement and that he could still be tried for crimes relating to the incident.
When prosecutors shifted the conversation to the victim’s criminal history, defense attorneys Kevan Gardner and Elizabeth Paige White appeared surprised.
Prosecutors asked the victim point blank if he was the same person who failed to register as a sex offender in 2025, which he initially denied. He also denied being charged with several older crimes. The victim later clarified that he did not consider himself “the same person” who committed those crimes but admitted that an older version of himself had gotten those charges. He stated he was a changed man.
After the jury was dismissed, White asked Judge Dayson to require prosecutors to clarify the victim’s criminal history at the next hearing. Judge Dayson said she would re-read the record and clarify the matter to the jury if the record seemed unclear.
Gardner and White also told Judge Dayson that prosecutors had not shared information about the victim’s mental health history as legally obligated. White argued that she had made repeated requests for witnesses’ mental health records to the prosecution, and that withholding the information violated the prosecution’s legal obligations to the defense.
“The [prosecution] did not disclose that this person was found incompetent due to their hallucinations,” White said.
Prosecutors argued that they had previously shared mental health records with White and were not intentionally withholding anything from the defense team.
Judge Dayson said that she would examine the matter more closely before deciding whether to sanction prosecutors.
A doctor who treated the victim stated the victim sustained a near lethal shot to the right shoulder, inches from the heart.
Trial is set to resume Oct. 9.
