He will be serving time in prison.
Frederick, Md (KM) One of the eight juveniles involved in the rioting at the Victor Cullen Center in Sabillasville earlier this year was sentenced on Monday. Ali Muhammad Tarek, 18, of Gaithersburg, was given 50 years in prison with all but five years suspended. After he’s released, Tarek will be placed on five-years of supervised probation.
“He actually pled guilty last week to two counts of 1st-degree assault on staff members as well as a couple of other 2nd-degree assault on staff members. And then finally a count we don’t see often, rioting,” says Frederick County State’s Attorney Charlie Smith.
The disturbance at the Victor Cullen Center began on April 8th, when two juveniles who were housed there got into a fight. That led to assaults on staff members by Tarek and other kids. “The staff attempted to try to work with the residents for over an hour to get them to calm down and then tried to restrain them,” says Smith. “While attempting to restrain Tarek, he began to hit, punch and assault various staff members. They were hurt pretty badly.
He says Tarek continued his assaults on staff members as they were working to bring the situation under control. . “As one of the guys attempted to leave the room–he was bleeding from his head, bleeding from his face–Tarek approached him from behind, and began to punch him from behind with a handcuff locked on to his right wrist. Obviously, this caused a heck of a lot of pain and serious injury to the staff member,” says Smith.
Eight staff members were injured. Three were taken to an area hospital for treatment.
The Maryland State Police and the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to try to restore order. A deputy trained as a negotiator established contact with the juveniles and persuaded them to give up.
Eight youths were arrested in connection with the incident.
Smith noted that rioting is not a charge often seen by local prosecutors. “There were eight different juveniles at that time being housed up there at Victor Cullen. And they actually rioted at the place, assaulted numerous staff members; broke various types of facility equipment. We charged them with that rioting count, and that’s one of the counts that he {Tarek} pleaded guilty to,” he says.
By Kevin McManus