Northeast D.C. felon gets 33 months for shooting at scooter rider

A 28-year-old convicted felon will spend nearly three years in federal prison for firing a handgun at a scooter rider on a Northeast Washington sidewalk.

Cornelius Welch was sentenced Tuesday, Sept. 29, to 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announced. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras handed down the sentence after Welch pleaded guilty May 19 to unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and endangerment with a firearm.

The shooting happened Nov. 22, 2025, around 4:15 p.m. at the Benning Courts apartment complex on the 1700 block of Benning Road NE. Surveillance cameras captured Welch drawing a gun, aiming at a person riding a scooter on the sidewalk and firing three times, according to court documents cited in the announcement.

No one appeared to be injured. The scooter rider kept going.

Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers recovered three .40 caliber shell casings from the street.

"By the grace of God, no one was struck," U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said. "A convicted armed robber who was prohibited from possessing a firearm, he chose to open fire on a neighborhood street, showing a complete disregard for the lives of others."

Welch already had a felony armed robbery conviction that barred him from possessing any firearm.

The case grew larger on Jan. 10, 2026, when MPD investigators and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents executed a search warrant at an apartment in the same block of Benning Road where Welch was staying with his girlfriend. Inside, they found a loaded semiautomatic rifle, a loaded .40 caliber pistol, a loaded 9mm pistol, powder cocaine, crack cocaine and PCP, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Welch and his girlfriend were arrested that day and charged in D.C. Superior Court with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance while armed, among other counts. On July 29, Welch was convicted in Superior Court of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and unlawful possession of a firearm. No sentencing date for that case has been announced.

The federal case was investigated jointly by the DEA, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and MPD. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael C. Lee prosecuted the case under the Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful initiative, a federal program that targets gun violence in the District.