Nearly two months after 56-year-old Charles Sharp was found stabbed to death on 14th Street NW, D.C. police arrested the man accused of killing him — but the arrest itself turned violent again when a dog charged at officers and was shot dead. Andrew Tyree Richardson, 25, was taken into custody shortly before 10 a.m. on Sunday, September 6, on a D.C. Superior Court warrant for second-degree murder while armed.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, officers from the Third District located Richardson and took him into custody without injury to him or to the officers. It was during that arrest that a dog belonging to a different, nearby residence — not the home where Richardson was being held — ran out and charged at the officers. As DC News Now reports, one officer first discharged a Taser, an electronic control device, in an attempt to stop the animal, but it failed to halt the dog. A different officer then fired a pistol, striking the dog, which later died from its injuries.
Police reported no other injuries connected to the encounter. The station's report notes that Richardson also faces a separate charge of possession of a BB gun in an unrelated case, along with burglary in the first degree tied to the homicide warrant.
How the July Stabbing Unfolded
The case traces back to the early morning hours of July 11, when DC Fire and EMS crews responded to the 2900 block of 14th Street NW shortly after 12:52 a.m. and found Sharp with no signs consistent with life. He was pronounced dead at the scene from a puncture wound, per the Metropolitan Police Department. Sharp, a 56-year-old Northwest D.C. resident, was previously covered by Hoodline in the days after the killing.
Richardson was not a stranger to police before this case. He was previously arrested in September 2022 on Columbia Road NW on charges of carrying a pistol without a license, unlawful possession of a firearm, and possession of unregistered ammunition, after officers recovered a 9mm handgun, according to MPD records.
Internal Affairs Reviews the Dog Shooting
Because the intentional discharge of an officer's firearm at an animal is classified as a serious use of force under MPD General Order GO-RAR-901.07, the department's Internal Affairs Bureau is required to investigate. The Internal Affairs Bureau's Force Investigations Team, which was established in 1999 to independently investigate all officer-involved firearm discharges and serious use-of-force events in the District, is handling the review, per the D.C. Office of Police Complaints.
It is not the first time MPD has faced this kind of review. In March 2024, an officer discharged a service pistol to destroy an aggressive loose dog on the 800 block of 49th Street NE after it bit a woman and two children, a case that also triggered an Internal Affairs Bureau review under the same protocol, with a final report completed that July.
Separately, D.C. Code § 5–116.33(c)(2) requires the mandatory public release of police body-worn camera footage following officer-involved shootings and serious use-of-force incidents, meaning footage from Sunday's encounter is expected to become public in the coming weeks.
A Corridor With a Troubled Recent History
The 2900 block of 14th Street NW, where Sharp was killed, sits along a stretch of Columbia Heights that has seen repeated violence in the past year, including a fatal September 2025 brawl stabbing and a June 2026 double stabbing outside a nearby venue, as Hoodline has previously reported. MPD's Third District has maintained focused patrols in the Columbia Heights and U Street corridors in response.
During the two-month search for Richardson, detectives relied on MPD's standard reward program, which offers up to $25,000 for anonymous information leading to an arrest and conviction in District homicides; tips can be submitted at 202-727-9099 or by texting 50411. It remains unclear whether the owner of the dog shot Sunday will face any municipal citation for an animal running loose, and Richardson's arraignment on the murder, burglary and weapons charges is still pending in D.C. Superior Court.
