A 15-year-old girl will be held in a youth detention facility until she turns 21 for a D.C. carjacking with another girl that left a Virginia man dead.
The girl received the maximum sentence in juvenile court Friday after pleading guilty last month to felony murder in the death of Mohammad Anwar, a Virginia man who was working as a delivery driver.
The second perpetrator, a 13-year-old girl, pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder. Under the maximum sentence, she also would be released once she turns 21.
Fighting tears, Anwar’s family made powerful statements in a virtual court hearing Friday before the teen was sentenced. They later gave News4 the text of those statements.
They spoke about the sadness of spending Ramadan and Eid without Anwar, and struggling with what to tell loved ones in the U.S. and Pakistan.
“Abu used to call his grandkids at least twice a day, and I have no idea what to tell them now when they ask where is their Dada Abu,” Anwar’s daughter Qandeel Anwar said. “How do I tell them what a murder is? How do I console my mother, who sits silently all day since March 23rd?”
She simmered with fury as she addressed the girl directly.
“I can never and will never forgive you for the pain you caused him,” she said.
Anwar’s sister Nargis Akbar asked for the harshest possible sentence.
“No amount of years they spend in a detention center can make up for even one percent of the pain my brother went through,” she said.
Anwar’s niece wished the girl well.
“Any sentence you receive today will not bring my uncle back,” Maham Akbar said.
“While you may not have seen value in his life in those moments, we do see value in yours. Your life is valuable. We hope you will learn from this and choose to go on to do great things and be a productive member of society.”
The girl was emotional during the family's statements. A D.C. Youth Services Center put an arm around her several times. When it was her turn to speak, she apologized and said she had not meant to kill Anwar.
Still, the judge called the crime unspeakable and issued the maximum sentence.
Anwar, of Springfield, was in a gray sedan and working as an Uber Eats driver when the girls asked him for a ride near the Navy Yard Metro station, prosecutors said.
Anwar had driven just a few blocks when the girls, armed with a stun gun, tried to steal his car in the 1200 block of Van Street SE.
Anwar tried to gain control of the car and accelerated, hit a tree and several parked cars, and flipped the car.
Police arrived at about 4:30 p.m. and found Anwar injured on the sidewalk. Medics took him to a hospital, where he died.
Cellphone video shot by a witness high above N Street shows the immediate aftermath of the crash. Anwar can be seen on the sidewalk. Two National Guard troops who were in the area pulled the two girls out of the flipped car as its wheels spun.
The girls lied to bystanders and said the car belonged to them, prosecutors said.
The girls were detained on the scene.
News4 was first to report on the crime, one of a number of recent carjackings by young people.
Anwar was a father and grandfather with loved ones in the U.S. and Pakistan, his family said.
“He was a hardworking immigrant who came to the U.S. in 2014 to build a better life for himself and his family. The loss for his family is immeasurable,” they said in a statement that called the crime "senseless."
The 13-year-old is set to be sentenced in July.
Read the victim statements from Friday's sentencing:
