A Landover man who opened fire at a baby shower last year, shooting his sister in the leg and killing a man, pleaded guilty to murder and assault charges Thursday in Prince George’s County Circuit Court.
As Erik Kenneth Dixon, 26, entered the courtroom, he looked squarely in the eyes of the mother, aunt, sister and cousin of Jerrod Falls, 31, the man he shot seven times in the back and chest after a quarrel over whether to attend another party.
The look “dried my mouth and put a lump in my throat,” said Jeriesha Falls, whose baby was about to be born when Dixon pulled up to the Woodlawn Recreation Center in Landover as friends and family were leaving Falls’ baby shower.
Around 7 p.m. on April 14, 2007, Dixon stepped out of his red Pontiac Grand Am and started arguing with Jerrod Falls and Dixon’s sister, Falls’ girlfriend, Lakeshia Dixon, about their social plans for the evening, police said.
As the argument ensued, Dixon pulled out a .45-caliber handgun, started shooting at Falls and Lakeshia, who went down quickly.
Falls ran into the parking lot, weaving through the cars. Dixon chased Falls, shouting, “I’m going to kill him.”
Dixon caught up to the already wounded Falls in a grassy area where he fired several more shots.
Leaving the bloody scene behind him, Dixon fled home, switched his car with a Chevy Avalanche and disappeared.
He was arrested a week later in Fairfax County after police officers there spotted the truck behind a grocery store and ran the plates.
Falls’ mother, Geneva Walker, said she’s glad the yearlong ordeal is over. But “nothing takes the pain away,” Walker said.
A week before the attack, Dixon’s girlfriend Cathy Anderson reported to the Maryland State Police that he had stolen a weapon she had bought for him in February 2007, police said.
Dixon was already a convicted felon, ineligible to buy a weapon.
According to the plea agreement, Dixon now faces up to 60 years in prison followed by three years of parole, although he hasn’t been officially sentenced.
