DC Teen Gets 10 Years in Armed Carjacking

⏱ 3 min read

Eighteen-year-old Eric Woods is heading to prison for a decade after a late-night armed carjacking in Northwest DC last October. Woods and an accomplice cornered a man in his Hyundai Elantra near Hanover Place and North Capitol Street around 1:33 a.m. on October 11, 2024, and stole the car at gunpoint. The victim wasn’t about to become a statistic.

Court papers paint a grim picture. Woods used a black sedan to box in the victim, then stepped out wielding a loaded Smith & Wesson M&P Sport 15-22 semi-automatic rifle. He demanded the car, rifled through the man’s pockets, swiped a garage door opener, and peeled out. But the victim and a relative didn’t let it go. They tracked the stolen Elantra and immediately dialed 911.

A swift response from MPD’s 6th and 7th Districts, backed by the Air Support Unit, quickly located the Hyundai abandoned on Jasper Street SE. Woods and his partner bailed, leaving the stolen car and the loaded rifle tossed into a nearby trash can. They thought they could outrun the cops; they were wrong.

Woods pleaded guilty June 30, 2025, to armed carjacking and possessing a firearm during a crime. Judge Robert Salerno wasn’t buying the defense’s pitch for leniency under the Youth Rehabilitation Act. He handed down the maximum: 10 years for the carjacking, and another 5 years concurrently for the gun charge. Woods will see the inside of a cell for the next ten years. The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia led the investigation.