Who is Eduardo Valdivia? FBI agent charged with off-duty shooting of man on subway
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND: FBI agent Eduardo Valdivia, 37, was indicted on attempted murder and other counts for shooting a passenger on a metro train, according to Maryland court records unsealed on Tuesday, June 1. The incident took place aboard a southbound Metro Red Line train on December 15, 2020. Valdivia was also charged with first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
The passenger who was shot by Valdivia, who was reportedly off-duty, was hospitalized with gunshot wounds but survived. According to an eyewitness' 911 call of the incident released on January 27, Valdivia warned the passenger to back away but instead, he stepped up to fight him. “The FBI agent said: ‘Move away. I’m an FBI agent. Back away," the 911 caller said. “The other gentleman didn’t, dropped his bag, approached him to fight him.” A similar incident involving a federal officer shooting a civilian had taken place in Denver last February. An off-duty FBI agent, Chase Bishop accidentally discharged his weapon while he was doing a backflip at a club in Denver and reportedly wounded another patron in the leg.
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After he turned himself in on Tuesday morning, June 1, Valdivia was booked into the Montgomery County Detention Center, according to online records and a jail official. No trial date has been set for the case so far. Valdivia's actions have been described by law enforcement officials as "an extreme overreaction to a stranger with a history of aggression who confronted the agent but did not physically assault him". There have been no reports that the man who was shot was armed.
Describing the incident, the 911 caller further said, that the agent fired “two or three” rounds as the train was pulling into the Medical Center station the morning of December 15. The agent then helped the injured man get off the train at the station, according to the 911 caller. The caller also mentioned that the FBI agent was “attacked” by the other passenger, but could not describe how or if there was any physical contact between the two before the shooting.
A lawyer for Valdivia, Robert Bonsib, argued in a lengthy statement that his client "has had an impeccable personal and professional background." At the time of the shooting, Valdivia was providing "operational guidance and programmatic oversight" of FBI investigations targeting racially motivated and anti-government extremists. Bonsib wrote, "One does not wait to be physically attacked, one does not wait until the threat has hands on you, before one is authorized to defend oneself." He added, "Neither does one need to retreat, when retreat is not possible, as was not possible here when Eddie Valdivia was seated at the end of the Metro car with his back against the wall and 'no clear exit path.'"
Bonsib also mentioned that court records reveal that the wounded man has a history of unpredictable and violent behavior, including an incident in 2019 where the man allegedly attacked and threatened to kill somebody at a Metro station. The Metro Transit Police, FBI and the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office divulged little information on the investigation of the case.
This is the second criminal case involving a federal law enforcement officer in Montgomery County in recent months. An off-duty Pentagon police officer, David Dixon, was indicted on two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder on April 29. According to the prosecutors, Dixon shot three men in a Takoma Park parking lot while they were driving away and posed no apparent danger to him. However, Dixon’s lawyers argued at a bail review hearing that the officer acted in self-defense after the car had driven toward him. Dixon's trial is scheduled for September 27.
Both the incidents involving federal officers were captured by security cameras, inside the train car in the Valdivia case and in the parking lot in the Dixon case.