Democratic Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser reportedly “lashed out” Monday against a Superior Court judge who released a 15-year-old carjacking suspect rather than holding her in a facility pending her trial on separate robbery charges.
The unidentified minor was sent home pending her trial on robbery charges and days later was involved with a group of girls that carjacked a ride-share driver on Thursday. The teen’s half-sister died in a crash after the carjacking, NBC Washington reported.
Bowser slammed the judge’s decision to have sent the girl home rather than hold her, according to the report. (RELATED: 7-Year-Old Saves Her Sister As Carjacker Holds Family At Gunpoint)
“In my opinion, you’ve been arrested for the seventh time for carjacking, [secure detention] is where you belong,” Bowser reportedly told reporters. “Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services does not make that decision. Judges do, and it’s the judge’s right to say I prefer shelter. And if I can’t get a shelter, then I’m going to send the child home. The child was sent home. The child is now not wish us.”
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The teen had reportedly been arrested seven times in the past for carjacking.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Andrea Hertzfeld initially ordered the teen to be held in a secure house while awaiting trial for a set of charges filed in April, according to NBC Washington. Hertzfeld said that when a secure house placement could not be found, the teen was allowed to return home with her parents while wearing a GPS monitor, according to the report.
“If we have children who are doing carjackings, it’s probably not a single one that they’ve done or have been arrested for,” Bowser told reporters, according to NBC Washington. “We need to make sure children don’t learn that they can do carjackings randomly and without punishment. A secured environment may actually help them get the services that they need.”
D.C. has seen a series of carjacking incidents, with Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar falling victim outside of his Navy Yard residence. Three armed men reportedly approached Cuellar while he was parking his car and took off with the vehicle.