Former President Donald Trump issued pardons for two police officers from Washington, D.C. who were convicted related to the case of Karon Hylton-Brown, a man who died after riding a moped on a sidewalk without a helmet and failing to heed police signals to stop.

The police officer, Terence D. Sutton, pursued Hylton-Brown in his vehicle for over ten blocks, including down a narrow alley while his sirens and emergency lights were not activated, as reported by federal prosecutors. Hylton-Brown was hit by another vehicle when he exited the alley, and after he lost consciousness, Sutton and his colleague, Andrew Zabavsky, allegedly agreed to hide the details of Sutton’s pursuit, according to the prosecution.

The officers permitted the driver of the car that hit Hylton-Brown to leave the scene within 20 minutes. They disabled their body cameras, conferred about the incident, and left without alerting the Metropolitan Police Department’s major crash and internal affairs divisions for an investigation, as noted by the Justice Department.

Sutton was found guilty by a federal jury in December 2022 of second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct, and obstructing justice, leading to a sentence of five and a half years in prison. In the same trial, Zabavsky was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice, resulting in a four-year prison term.

The officers’ union and their attorneys had requested a pardon from Trump, according to CNN.

At the time of the pardons issued on Wednesday, neither Sutton nor Zabavsky was incarcerated; they were both free and appealing their convictions, as reported by NBC4 Washington.

Karen Hylton, mother of Karon, expressed her concerns to Trump prior to the pardons, requesting that he reconsider his decision, according to NBC4 Washington.

“President Trump, as a mother of a child I cherish, I want to speak with you privately,” she urged. “Please do not grant pardons to Sutton and Zabavsky.”

In a statement to YSL News, attorney for Sutton, Kellen Dwyer, expressed confidence that the D.C. Circuit would have overturned the convictions, and was thankful to Trump for concluding the prosecution. The D.C. Circuit is a federal appeals court.

Zabavsky’s attorney, Christopher Zampogna, also issued a statement expressing gratitude towards Trump for the “full and unconditional pardon” for a case he deemed unjust. He noted they were optimistic about overturning the case on appeal but were thrilled with the pardon.

(This story has been updated to include additional details.)