A DC juvenile court judge ruled that a 15-year-old girl will stay in a youth detention center until she turns 21 for her involvement in a DC carjacking that caused the death of an UberEats driver in March.
The teen had pleaded guilty last month to felony murder in the killing of Mohammad Anwar, a 66-year-old Pakistani immigrant based in Virginia.
The second girl, a 13-year-old who also took part in the carjacking, pleaded guilty Thursday, June 3, to second-degree murder. She also would remain incarcerated until she turns 21 under the maximum sentence.
On March 23, the two girls caused the death of Anwar, who worked as an UberEats driver, while trying to steal his car in the 1200 block of Van Street, Southeast.
The pair are accused of tasing Anwar during their carjacking attempt. The man tried to gain control of the vehicle, but ended up hitting a tree and other cars, leading to a rollover crash which killed him.
Anwar was a father, a grandfather, and a husband. He “was a hard-working Pakistani immigrant who came to the United States to create a better life for him and his family,” according to a GoFundMe page started to support the family of Anwar. “He was simply at work … providing for his family, when his life was tragically taken in an appalling act of violence.”
“The family is devastated by this senseless crime,” Anwar’s family members said in a statement to WUSA9. He was “beloved by many here in the United States and in Pakistan, his birth country.”
DC Police Chief Robert Contee said in an interview in late March that charging the teen girls as adults would not “bring back the lost loved one in this case.”
At least one minor was arrested in 19 carjackings committed in the District this year as of the end of March, according to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
There has also been an overall rise in carjackings, with more than 100 incidents this year, while the figure was a little over 20 during the same period of 2020.
DC Police Chief Says Teens in Deadly Carjacking Should Not Be Tried as Adults