The judge called it an "unthinkable crime," and said it was "incomprehensible" that a child would be so "unfeeling," before sentencing the older of two teen girls involved in the carjacking murder of grandfather and Pakistani immigrant Mohammed Anwar. The judge gave the 15-year-old the maximum sentence -- six years of youth detention.
The girl will have to be released on her 21st birthday, and D.C. judge Lynn Leibovitz said she hoped by that time the girl will have received services so she's "never in a position to do anything like this again."
Anwar's family members wept as they described him as an "angel" who, despite humble means, always worked to help others. The UberEats driver had toiled apart from his family for decades, and had only recently been able to reunite with them in Northern Virginia. His daughter said he was a diabetic, who was always afraid in the morning when she had to prick his finger to test his blood sugar.
“I cannot get past the fact of him enduring the pain of the injuries you caused him," she said speaking directly to the girl being sentenced. "I cannot move past that sidewalk on N St. on March 23, where my apu (father) lay broken, while one of you is only concerned about your phone."
His widow, her niece said, has sat silently in a corner and wept since she lost him.
"There is so much our family has endured because of you," Anwar's niece said through tears, speaking directly to the girl. "In these few months since March 23, we were literally at the cemetery for his burial, when we learned a video of the incident was uploaded to the internet, and went viral quickly after, including in Pakistan, which is half a world away. I cannot begin to tell you how agonizing and devastating it is to watch your loved one die so violently, and have the world view it as entertainment on websites like Worldstar Hip Hop and TMZ. There are nights we cannot sleep as the horrific video replays in our heads over and over and over again. We are haunted by the image of his broken, crumpled body lying on the pavement, and him struggling to move. It is incredibly heartbreaking to watch the respondents lack empathy, and immediately cry out for their cell phones, while he is laying literally at their feet." WUSA9
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