WASHINGTON — A 27-year-old D.C. man has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for fatally shooting a man at a convenience store in Southeast Washington, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Rondez Tibbs was sentenced on Friday for the shooting incident that happened in last year. According to government evidence, on July 21, 2021, around 12:15 a.m., he was at a convenience store located on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE. The victim in the case, 27-year-old Malcolm Johnson, was also in the store.
Tibbs approached Johnson, attempted to rob him, and take his cross body bag from him. Tibbs held a handgun with an extended magazine down by his side while Johnson began to reach for his own gun to defend himself. As Tibbs had Johnsons pinned against the wall, Johnson grabbed his gun from inside his bag.
While Johnson was grabbing his gun, Tibbs grabbed his hand, and a struggle began between them resulting in both men being shot.
Johnson stumbled out of the store and entered a parked vehicle, which is where he was later found unconscious, suffering from a gunshot wound to the stomach a short time later.
Tibbs was hospitalized due to his injuries and arrested. He pleaded guilty in June 2022, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, to second-degree murder while armed, according to DOJ.
The plea agreement, which was accepted by the court, called for an agreed-upon term of 9 ½-to-14 years in prison, DOJ said. Following his prison term, he will be placed on five years of supervised release.
