Mohammad Anwar, a 66-year-old Uber Eats driver in Washington, D.C., was killed last month after two teenage girls assaulted him with a Taser and stole his car. The girls crashed the car, which resulted in Anwar’s death.
Normally, the murder of a Pakistani immigrant would capture media attention for weeks, but with the killers being black teen girls, it quickly disappeared. The girls, aged 13 and 15, were also able to reach a plea deal that allows them to “avoid detention in prison facilities and will not be held past the age of 21,” The Daily Wire’s Ian Haworth previously reported.
Earlier this month, Acting D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee III gave some disturbing answers to questions regarding the case, RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar reported. When asked by Fox’s D.C. affiliate about the 13-year-old girl’s alleged involvement in a separate carjacking, Contee reportedly said:
That’s one of many. We have one for that particular – one of the individuals involved, but there are several carjackings that we have had so far this year where we’re seeing individuals that are involved in multiple, multiple cases. So clearly I think that speaks to us really examining, as a community, the accountability that’s in place. You know, how is it that someone is charged with carjacking or is responsible for carjacking commits another carjacking and another carjacking? I think it’s the larger issue than just this one particular case.
Van Laar reported that 101 carjackings were reported in D.C. between January 1 and March 28 of this year. During the same period in 2020, just 22 carjackings were reported, suggesting the response to such crime has been insufficient.
Contee was also asked if he believed the 15-year-old girl should be tried as an adult for her alleged crime, to which Contee replied:
“The 15-year-old would not be charged as an adult. You know, obviously, this is a tragic case and, you know, charging this person as an adult [who’s] a juvenile … does not bring back the lost loved one in this case,” said Acting Chief Contee, “And certainly, again, the 15-year-old would not be eligible as a Title 16 case. You know, and it’s not really pointing fingers at anyone – the courts or anyone.”
“If that’s the logic, charging anyone with any degree of homicide is useless since it doesn’t bring back the lost loved one. Is there a case in which the manner in which defendants are charged DOES bring back the lost loved one? Because I’m sure there are a lot of wives and husbands and granddaughters and grandsons and moms and dads who would like to have their lost loved one back,” Van Laar wrote.
The two girls were reportedly approached with plea-bargain offers from a prosecutor, a move that likely would not have happened if the two teenagers were male.
“He was a hardworking immigrant who came to the U.S. in 2014 to build a better life for himself and his family,” Anwar’s family said in a statement. “The loss for his family is immeasurable.”
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the number of carjackings that had been reported in D.C. between January 1 and March 28 of 2021. It has been updated to note that the number reported was 101, not 1010.