WASHINGTON: Ashan M. Benedict, a US citizen of Sri Lankan ancestry, has been appointed as the Executive Assistant Chief of Police at the Metropolitan Police Department in the United States capital of Washington DC. In this role, he will be responsible for assisting the Chief of Police in directing and providing long-range planning, development and coordination of operations and procedures for the department.
Before joining the Metropolitan Police Department, Mr Benedict served the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in several major posts of duty, most recently serving as the Special Agent in Charge of the Washington DC Field Division. He began his ATF career in 1998 as a special agent assigned to the ATF’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force in Washington DC. As a street agent, he investigated violent drug trafficking organisations, armed robberies of commercial businesses, armed car-jackings, gang-related racketeering murders and firearms trafficking offences.
Mr Benedict was also involved in the ATF’s response and investigation of several notable events and incidents, including the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon; the Beltway Sniper investigation; the ATF’s response and support to New Orleans in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina; the Washington DC Navy Yard active shooter; the San Bernardino, California, mass shooting terrorist attack in December 2015 and the mass mailing of pipe bombs in New York City in October 2018. Mr Benedict also was the on-scene Incident Commander for the ATF’s deployment in response to the riots at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Fordham University and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from Syracuse University, Maxwell School in Washington DC. He is also a graduate of the Asian American Government Executive Network’s Senior Executive Service Development Programme (SESDP). In 2017, Mr. Benedict received the Federal Drug Agent Foundation’s (FDAF) Lifetime Achievement Award.
He and his family now reside in Washington DC. He is the son of the late Edward Benedict, a Sri Lankan Lecturer at Fordham University, and Chitra Benedict.(ST)
