A 21-year-old Washington, D.C. man has pleaded guilty to a two-month spree of armed carjackings that terrorized victims across the District, Maryland and Virginia, admitting to crimes that included dragging a musician down the street as he fled with a stolen car. Taurian Anderson entered his plea to four federal counts, ending a case that stretched from a D.C. gas station to a suburban Maryland street to a Virginia credit union parking lot.
Anderson's spree began on August 9, 2024, when he and a co-conspirator approached a DoorDash delivery driver in the 4200 block of East Capitol Street NE and demanded, at gunpoint, that the driver get out of the car, according to court documents cited by DC News Now. The same day, Anderson and another person approached a second car in the 4200 block of Dupont Terrace SE and ordered that driver to leave the vehicle and belongings behind, also at gunpoint, per the outlet's reporting.
Nearly a month later, on September 7, 2024, Anderson and an accomplice drove a stolen car to Silver Spring, Maryland, where the case took its most physically dangerous turn. The pair blocked a driver's car in the 8000 block of Eastern Avenue and ordered him to the ground at gunpoint, before stealing his iPhone, wallet, vehicle keys and home keys, DC News Now reports.
A Musician Dragged for His Saxophone
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, one of the September 7 victims was a professional musician who pleaded with Anderson and his accomplice to let him retrieve his saxophone from the car before they drove off. Instead, per the U.S. Department of Justice, the suspects dragged him roughly five feet down the road as they fled in his Honda Civic, taking his phone, wallet, keys and instrument with it.
That same day, Anderson and another individual also punched a driver twice in the 6700 block of New Hampshire Avenue in Hyattsville, Maryland, stealing his iPhone, two laptops, credit cards, house keys and car keys, DC News Now reports. Anderson later sent text messages attempting to sell one of the stolen cars and two other vehicles, according to the outlet.
Falls Church Confrontation and a River Standoff
The spree's final chapter unfolded on October 4, 2024, when Anderson and another individual held four people at gunpoint outside a credit union in the 5000 block of Columbia Pike in Falls Church, Virginia, ordering them to the ground and to empty their pockets. The pair stole victims' phones and one person's car keys before attempting to force open the locked door of an occupied parked car nearby in the 3000 block of South Jefferson Street, though the driver managed to escape by putting the car into drive, per DC News Now.
Earlier that same day, Anderson had demanded car keys at gunpoint from a driver at a BP gas station in the 5000 block of Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue NE in Washington. An MPD helicopter spotted the stolen vehicle moving recklessly through traffic, and it was later involved in a crash at Independence Avenue SE and East Capitol Street SE, according to the outlet. Anderson and another person abandoned that car near RFK Stadium.
What followed was a tense foot chase. Anderson ran under the Whitney Young Memorial Bridge and into the Anacostia River, where, according to DC Witness, U.S. Capitol Police officers pursuing him watched as he pointed a handgun at his own head, prompting a crisis negotiation team response before he ultimately surrendered. Anderson dropped his gun into the river during the standoff, and officers recovered the firearm the following day, per the outlet. U.S. Capitol Police separately apprehended another carjacking suspect in a nearby field, while a second stolen car was driven away by yet another person, DC News Now reports.
Co-Defendant Charged, Guilty Plea Entered
Anderson was arrested alongside 18-year-old Terrell Edmondson, who was charged in D.C. Superior Court in connection with the October 4 armed carjacking at the Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue gas station; both were ordered held without bond, according to DC Witness. Anderson has now pleaded guilty to one count of carjacking and aiding and abetting, one count of conspiracy to commit carjacking, and two counts of using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia reported.
Anderson's plea was entered in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., before U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell, who has scheduled his sentencing for January 29, 2027, per the Department of Justice. The two firearm counts carry significant weight: under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), brandishing a firearm during a federal crime of violence carries a mandatory minimum of seven years in prison, and federal law requires that sentence run consecutively to any other sentence imposed, according to the Spodek Law Group. Separately, federal carjacking convictions under 18 U.S.C. § 2119 carry a statutory maximum of up to 15 years in prison for standard offenses, with higher maximums possible if the crime results in serious bodily injury, per guidance from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
A Spree That Crossed State Lines Amid a Broader Decline
Anderson's case required unusual coordination across jurisdictions, spanning Washington, D.C., Prince George's and Montgomery counties in Maryland, and Fairfax County, Virginia. D.C. law enforcement agencies typically rely on Real Time Crime Centers, helicopter aerial tracking and multi-jurisdictional task forces to monitor cross-border crime sprees of this kind, according to the Metropolitan Police Department — infrastructure that mirrors how MPD air units and Capitol Police coordinated during the final chase in Anderson's case.
The spree also occurred against the backdrop of a historic decline in violent crime in the District. Overall violent crime in Washington fell 35% in 2024 compared to 2023, while armed carjackings specifically dropped 53%, marking the District's lowest violent crime total in more than 30 years, according to Justice Department data. More recently, mid-year 2026 figures from the Council on Criminal Justice showed reported carjackings in D.C. fell another 63% during the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2025.
Court data examined by DC Witness found that young adults between 18 and 24 made up half of all D.C. carjacking defendants prosecuted in 2025, with juveniles accounting for another 22% — a demographic picture that fits Anderson, who was 20 during the spree and 21 by the time he entered his plea. The case follows a string of similar federal prosecutions in the District, including a five-year sentence over a gunpoint Jetta theft handed down earlier this month for an armed carjacking on East Capitol Street NE.
