FBI agent acquitted in 2020 D.C. subway shooting now arrested on sexual assault charges

A special agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been charged with sexually assaulting two women, according to police and court records. The agent, Eduardo Valdivia, was previously acquitted of attempted murder for shooting a man on a Metro subway train near Washington, D.C.,  four years ago. He was arrested in Maryland on Monday.

Valdivia has been suspended by the FBI, pending the conclusion of a police investigation in Montgomery County, Maryland, a bureau spokesperson said.

“The FBI takes allegations of criminal violations and misconduct very seriously. We are aware of the matter involving the recent arrest of an FBI employee and are fully cooperating with the Montgomery County Police Department. Because this is an ongoing investigation, the FBI cannot comment further,” the FBI said in a statement to CBS affiliate WUSA.

Valdivia previously was charged and acquitted in 2022 of attempted second-degree murder and other charges, including first-degree assault and reckless endangerment, in the off-duty shooting of another man while aboard a moving Metro train near Washington, D.C. The agent eventually turned himself in to local authorities at a county jail, and a judge soon after agreed to release him on personal recognizance, without objection from the prosecution.

A Maryland jury found Valdivia not guilty of the murder or related charges, after the agent claimed he acted in self-defense. Those charges stemmed from an apparent verbal confrontation with the other man on that Metro train. Police for the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority said about a week after the shooting that the injured man was in stable condition. 

Online court records show Valdivia now faces felony and misdemeanor charges, including two counts of second-degree rape. The dates of the alleged offenses are in May 2024 and September 2024.

Defense attorney Robert Bonsib, who represented Valdivia in the shooting case, confirmed that his client was arrested Monday on sexual assault charges.

“We don’t accept at first blush any of the allegations until all of the evidence is in,” Bonsib said.

A spokesperson for the Montgomery County Police Department identified Valdivia as the arrested FBI agent without commenting on his connection to the shooting.

Police detectives believe there may be additional victims, and they’re planning a news conference on Tuesday “to encourage them to come forward,” the department said in a statement. Police didn’t immediately release any other information about the charges.

Valdivia, 40, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, was ordered held in custody after his initial court appearance on Monday, Bonsib said. Valdivia is scheduled to return to court Tuesday for a bond hearing before a judge, Bonsib said.

Bonsib has said Valdivia joined the FBI in 2011 and was promoted to supervisory special agent at the FBI headquarters in 2019. The attorney said Valdivia had been working as an FBI agent since his acquittal.

On Dec. 15, 2020, a confrontation between Valdivia and an unarmed passenger swiftly escalated from a testy exchange of words to a shooting on a train approaching the Medical Center station in Bethesda, Maryland.

Valdivia shot and wounded the man from a distance of roughly 2 to 3 feet after repeatedly telling the man to back up, county prosecutor Robert Hill said in court. The wounded man had part or all of his spleen, colon and pancreas removed during surgery after the shooting, Hill said.

Bonsib has said Valdivia acted in self-defense as the man approached him at the rear of a train car.

“The law does not require that you wait to be struck before you take action. Had this resulted in a hands-on fight and a struggle for Agent Valdivia’s gun, only God knows what could have happened,” Bonsib said after Valdivia was charged.