White House calls D.C. policies 'insanity' over Darius Drew sentence
A judge gave Darius Drew 18 months of supervised probation after he wounded a boy playing basketball; prosecutors had sought five years in prison.
A D.C. judge sentenced 19-year-old Darius Drew to probation for a May shooting that wounded a boy playing basketball, federal prosecutors said, and the White House called the city's policies "insanity."
D.C. Superior Court Judge Jennifer Di Toro imposed 18 months of supervised probation on Nov. 13 under the Youth Rehabilitation Act, despite the government's objection, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said. Prosecutors had sought five years in prison.
"The case illustrates the insanity of Washington, D.C.'s soft-on-crime policies that allow adults to receive just a slap on the wrist for dangerous crimes like firing twenty rounds of ammunition into the community," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital, which exclusively reported the White House response.
Drew was released immediately after the hearing over prosecutors' objections. He had been in custody for nearly six months following his May 22 arrest.
It was not immediately known why Di Toro applied the act or what Drew's defense argued at sentencing.
The D.C. law permits eligible offenders who committed crimes before age 25 to receive sentences below otherwise applicable mandatory minimums and possibly have their convictions set aside. It excludes murder and the most serious sexual abuse offenses. The D.C. Council expanded the law in 2018.
"It is remarkable that even with these types of radical policies in place, President Trump's Safe and Beautiful Task Force has been able to drive down violent crime in our nation's capital," Bis told Fox News Digital. The White House said the task force has made more than 19,000 arrests in the capital.
The shooting occurred May 11 in Northwest Washington, where prosecutors said Drew fired more than 20 rounds from two locations. The gunfire struck a boy in the leg as he played basketball at a nearby recreation center.
Drew pleaded guilty Aug. 10 to aggravated assault and carrying a pistol without a license.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has previously urged lawmakers to revise the act. In an Aug. 6, 2025, letter to the D.C. Council, she pointed to another 19-year-old who received probation after shooting someone in the chest aboard a Metrobus.
That defendant pleaded guilty to two offenses with five-year mandatory minimums but received probation after spending four months in jail awaiting trial, Pirro said in 2025. "This sentence was a legal sentence only because he was sentenced under the YRA," she wrote in the letter.
In her 2025 letter, Pirro argued for changes to balance rehabilitation with accountability. Her office said 96% of defendants younger than 25 who received felony sentences in D.C. Superior Court from 2022 through 2024 were eligible for the act, though they were not necessarily sentenced under it.
