SILVER SPRING, Md. — A Baltimore man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for a horrifying crime in Silver Spring last year. Kaleab Berhanu was sentenced Friday for a deadly home invasion shooting on Easter Sunday.
On April 9, 2023, just after 3 a.m., Montgomery County officers were called to the 11800 block of Old Columbia Pike for a report of an injured person. When police got there, they found a man shot several times. He was later identified as 20-year-old Carlos Carter.
Homicide detectives learned that someone forced their way into Carter's home through a back door and shot him. Investigators said ballistic evidence showed multiple shooters may have been involved in the shooting. Police found a spent 45 caliber casing in the home.
While interviewing family members, detectives learned of someone with the nickname KB, who may have wanted to hurt Carter. Family members told a detectives that KB was involved in the shooting of a close friend of Carter's. The friend survived the shooting, but ended up paralyzed as a result, according to court documents.
Through further investigation of the earlier shooting, police learned KB was Berhanu. The friend who had been paralyzed told police that Berhanu and Carter were together at Carter's house when Berhanu was robbed at gunpoint of his iPhone, about $300, and marijuana. Carter was there at the time, "but it was not clear if he participated in the robbery of Kaleab Berhanu," charging documents say. The robbery had occurred several years earlier, and was part of an ongoing dispute between Carter and Berhanu.
Following an investigation, detectives arrested Berhanu in May 2023 and charged him with first-degree murder, home invasion and gun charges. He was found guilty in March of this year.
“This victim was asleep in his bed when he was attacked. He was shot multiple times as he attempted to escape the defendant and fell at the feet of his mother and siblings. We express our deepest condolences to the family, and we thank Assistant State’s Attorneys Peter Larson and Thea Zumwalt for seeing justice served in this matter,” State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in March.
On Friday, Judge Harry Storm sentenced Berhanu, 21, to two consecutive life sentences plus 20 years for the shooting.
