SILVER SPRING, Md. — Wafaa Alsen says she still gets shaken up when she hears the recording of Montgomery County Sheriff deputies coming to her home.
“I felt scared and terrorized,” she recalled. “I was really in shock when they came in.”
Alsen says the deputies arrived at her apartment in Enclave Apartments on Tuesday morning while her husband was out getting dialysis treatment.
She says although she guessed law enforcement was on the other side of the door, she was completely unprepared for what happened when she opened the door.
“There was a big officer standing at the door with his gun out,” she said. “He put his gun back into his holster, the others walked in with their guns pointing in different directions in the apartment.”
The Montgomery County Sherriff’s Office sent WUSA9 a statement that reads, in part, “During these searches, deputies are entering areas of unknown risks. Therefore, while conducting such searches, deputies are trained to have their firearms available should a tenant or squatter be present on or about the property that has the potential to present dangers to the deputy(ies) or the public.”
Although Alsen and her family remain housed after the Sheriff's Office's visit, her husband, Zakarya Khirallah, now says he doesn’t feel safe anymore in his home.
“I’ve been depressed ever since,” he said. “I can’t sleep because, the slightest sound, I’m wondering if they’re coming back.”
The couple’s story is far from unique in Enclave Apartments.
Dozens of families arriving as refugees to the U.S. were placed in the apartment complex and promised help to resettle from various resettlement agencies like the International Rescue Committee.
However, Khirallah says even though his family has been here since last October, that help never came.
“In the beginning, they said they’d cover three months, and then they said we’ll transfer you to another department at the IRC that will cover another three months after that, but they haven’t done any of that,” he said.
Now his family owes $22,339.64 in back rents, and due to Khirallah's multiple medical conditions, has no way to repay that debt, and with no connections in Maryland, Khirallah and Alsen say they don’t know what to do.
“I’m at a loss I don’t know what to do in this situation, I don’t know where to go,” Alsen said.
The statement from the Montgomery County’s Sheriff’s Office goes on to say: “Where the Sheriff’s Office is aware that the County has been working with particular property owners to make payments to forestall certain evictions and avoid homelessness, the Sheriff’s Office has temporarily rescheduled such evictions to provide the County and property owners additional time to make financial arrangements. However, the Sheriff’s Office is ultimately bound by orders of the courts to execute such evictions.”
