WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Antonio Gibbs said he feels lucky to be alive. He had just left a storage unit attached to his 36th Street NE home Saturday morning when a car slammed into it.
“It didn’t even hit me I could have died not until my sons were able to get through the barricade and walk up to me and say ‘daddy are you okay,’ Gibbs said. “It hit me then like oh my gosh I could’ve died.”
The driver of the car, 17-year-old Dalaneo Martin, died after a U.S. Park Police officer who was in the car as well shot him. The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed this on Monday.
Park Police said they tried to stop Dalaneo, who was driving what they believed to be a stolen car. During a chase, one officer got dragged by the car and one officer was inside it. Police said that’s when the officer inside the car shot the teen.
“They said ‘put your hands up, put your hands up, put your hands up,'” Gibbs recalled what he heard after the crash. “Then one of the cops walked around and then said ‘Oh my gosh, he’s already dead.'”
The car struck a storage unit attached to Gibbs’ home.
“I had so much stuff in that unit that prevented the car from coming any farther into the unit,” said Gibbs.
He left the unit just seconds before the car slammed into it.
The two Park Police officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Investigators said they found a gun in the car moments after the crash. The D.C. Police Internal Affairs Division is leading the investigation into the shooting.