Murder suspect charged in string of armored car robberies
Washington DC October 6 2023 A D.C. man already accused of murder in a 2021 shootout in a Southeast neighborhood has been indicted in connection with a separate string of armored car robberies along with two other men, according to federal charges unsealed this week.
A judge unsealed a nine-count indictment Monday against three men – William Brock, Anthony Antwon McNair Jr. and Erin Sheffey – accused of three armed robberies of Brinks armored cars between October 2021 and March 2022. Brock was initially charged in January as a lone defendant. All three men now face multiple felony charges each, including bank robbery, conspiracy and using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
According to the indictment, one member of the conspiracy would stake out Brinks armored cars and banks to learn their routes and the drivers’ patterns. All three robberies occurred on the same day of the week, Wednesday, at approximately 9 a.m.
During the first robbery on Oct. 6, 2021, prosecutors said three men armed with long guns approached the driver of an armored truck parked in front of the SunTrust Bank on Good Hope Road in Southeast. They then beat the driver and stole a courier bag containing more than $100,000 before fleeing in an SUV driven by a fourth person. The SUV, which had been stolen in Silver Spring a month earlier, was found abandoned approximately half a mile away from the bank with its dashboard set on fire. Prosecutors said they believe witness testimony and DNA evidence will tie Brock and McNair to the crime.
The second robbery occurred two months later, on Dec. 8, 2021. According to prosecutors, two witnesses identified Brock and McNair as the men who again assaulted a driver, this time with a handgun, and stole a second courier bag. Prosecutors say Brock pistol whipped the driver before both men fled the scene.
Prosecutors said they can link Sheffey to the third robbery on March 2, 2022. In that incident, prosecutors said robbers struck an armored car from three different angles the moment it pulled up to the Truist Bank on Good Hope Road. One of the robbers armed with a handgun entered the truck and pointed the gun at the driver before handing multiple bags of cash to another robber outside the truck. Surveillance images from inside the truck show the driver with his hands in the air as a man in a black hoodie and black face-covering points a handgun inches away from his face. In that robbery, prosecutors said the suspects stole more than $1 million in cash in less than 45 seconds.
Investigators said Brocks’ fingerprints were found on a plastic bag and money wrappers inside the getaway vehicle, which was also reported stolen from Montgomery County. A DNA swab of the car’s steering wheel and a yellow vest found inside the vehicle reportedly matched for Sheffey. Investigators also reportedly found information on Brock’s phone linking him to the robberies, including photographs of large stacks of cash and web searches for armored car robberies on Good Hope Road.
After the robberies, prosecutors said, Sheffey and other alleged co-conspirators used the stolen funds to travel to Los Angeles, where they hoped to make connections to purchase drugs they would then sell in D.C.
In addition to the armored car robbery case he now faces, Sheffey was charged in D.C. Superior Court last month with six counts – including murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence – in connection with a shootout in the 2000 block of 16th Street SE in August 2021 that resulted in the death of 32-year-old Kiwyon Maddox. According to a memo filed in federal court Tuesday seeking Sheffey’s pretrial detention, Sheffey opened fire on Maddox and another individual without provocation as they were riding dirt bikes on 16th Street. A firefight between the two dirt bike riders and other individuals, including, prosecutors said, Sheffey, then ensued. Maddox was struck in the back by a bullet while attempting to flee and died.
“Defendant Sheffey played a significant role in the armed and violent robbery of armored trucks in broad daylight,” prosecutors wrote in the memo. “He also shot at a man leading to a public shootout that left that man dead. He is a danger to our community and no conditions of release can keep our community safe were he to be released.”
