A player for a District semiprofessional football team was sentenced to 20 years in prison for fatally shooting a team official outside a high school practice field. Twenty-five-year-old Oma Crawford, of Landover, pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder while armed in the slaying of 36-year-old Ralph Thomas.
Crawford played defensive back for the D.C. Falcons, who practiced at McKinley Technology High School in Northeast Washington. Thomas was part of the team management.
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According to court documents, Crawford was upset because he believed that Thomas was having an sexual affair with his wife.
On June 3, Crawford sent several text messages to Thomas, including one saying, “U don’t have to be scared … Let’s settle this like men.” Crawford then went to the Falcons’ practice at 151 T St. NW with a blue Nike gym bag containing a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol.
Crawford set the bag down at the edge of the parking lot and waited, a document said. When Thomas arrived at about 8:30 p.m., the men discussed the matter in “normal tones,” according to court documents. At some point in the exchange, Crawford ran to the gym bag and pulled out the gun.
Amid cries of “Omar No! Omar No!” and “Get out of the way, get your children!,” Crawford chased Thomas around the parking lot, firing at least four shots, a police affidavit said. A bullet struck Thomas in the head, and he died.
Crawford took off running. Police responding to the shooting saw Crawford several blocks away and gave chase. One officer was able to keep up with the athlete, jumping over brick walls, cars and a fence, before catching Crawford in a rear alley in the 200 block of S Street NE.
The gym bag was found under a back porch in the 200 block of R Street. Inside was the .380-caliber, a black T-shirt and a pair of football cleats.
Crawford, with previous convictions of statutory burglary and grand larceny in Virginia in 2008, a gun charge in Maryland in 2008 and a simple assault in the District in 2009, was sentenced to the maximum allowed under the plea agreement.
