DC carjacking: Girls aged 13 and 15 charged with felony murder over deadly crash

Suspects accused of using taser on driver during incident on Tuesday

Two girls, aged 13 and 15-years-old, have been charged with felony murder after being involved in a fatal crash while allegedly attempting to carjack a ride-share vehicle.

The attempted carjacking occurred outside South Capitol Street in Washington, DC, at around 4:30pm on Tuesday, the authorities confirmed.

A DC Police spokesman told reporters that the two girls, one of whom was allegedly armed with a stun gun, attempted to carjack a Honda Accord being driven by ride-share driver Mohammad Anwar, 66.

The police said that during the struggle, one of the girls used the taser on the driver causing the car to accelerate and crash into vehicles parked on the side of the road, before then flipping over near Nationals Park in Southeast, DC.

Mr Anwar, from Springfield, Virginia, was thrown from the vehicle and onto the pavement when it crashed, while the two girls remained inside the car. They were arrested at the scene.

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Emergency services quickly responded to the scene and transported Mr Anwar to a local hospital, but he died later on Tuesday from injuries sustained during the incident.

The crash shocked residents, as Pamela Johnson, who lives in the area, told NBC Washington: “I saw all the police cars first. Then I saw the car, and I thought, ‘This must be a movie scene or something.’” 

In a statement on Wednesday morning, DC police confirmed that the two girls had been charged with felony murder and armed carjacking.

The police did not identify the girls due to their ages, but confirmed that one is from the Washington, DC, area while the other is from nearby Maryland.

There has been a surge in attempted carjackings in Washington, DC, over the last few months, as police reported 345 carjackings in the first five weeks of 2021, which is a 142 per cent rise from the same time in 2020.