WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Grand Theft Auto in real life. That is what prosecutors are saying suspects arrested for their involvement in a string of carjackings across the DMV texted each other.
The U.S. Attorney has busted two crime rings and put ten teenagers behind bars in connection. The teenagers, charged as adults, are accused of targeting drivers in D.C. and Prince George’s County in fifteen carjackings between Christmas 2022 and June 2023.
It all started with the arrest of the alleged ringleader, 18-year-old Cedae Hardy, back in August. Police say he conspired with others to store and sell stolen vehicles in a Florida Avenue garage attached to an apartment building. WUSA9 got video inside that small garage underneath the Hendrix apartments at Trinidad and Florida Avenues, Northeast. Now, for the first time we are seeing pictures of some of the ten alleged carjackers caught in the act. According to the court documents, the suspects stored their guns inside one of the apartments. But the co-conspirators living in the apartment are not facing an indictment right now.
“You’re correct there are allegations of vehicles being stored in a garage on Florida Avenue,” explained U.S. Attorney Graves, “there’s nothing public yet and I want to be very careful whether the owner of the building or anyone else noticed these cars or even knew about them.”
Prosecutors say all ten defendants coordinated the drop offs through social media and text messages, even once sending the acronym: GTA-IRL which U-S Attorney Graves said stands for Grant Theft Auto in Real Life.
“That shows the level of calculation. This is not an impetuous crime, you know exactly what you're doing,” said Graves, “It also speaks to the callousness that you don't care about the victims and that we need to have a serious response to show people this is not a game this is the real world and we need to have real world consequences.”
But Graves said the defendants likely won’t be sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 15 years for each charge because of a D.C. law called the Youth Rehabilitation Act. The DC Council is currently reviewing that law in its crime packages.
“They made that law more lenient in 2018 by allowing judges not to impose mandatory minimum for armed carjacking for anyone who is under 25 at the time of the offense,” Graves explained.
The suspects in this string of carjackings are behind bars awaiting sentencing. One suspect heads to court on Tuesday.
Police say the suspects indicted and charged as adults include:
- Cedae Hardy
- Landrell Jordan III
- Malik Norman
- Jalen Jordan
- Warren Montgomery
- Byrom Gillum
- Isaiah Flowers
- Jahkai Goff
- Taj Giles
- Irshaad Ellis-Bey
To date, 145 people have been arrested for armed carjacking. Eighty percent are juveniles.