It was jarring video captured by cameras mounted on a Prince George’s County school bus: three boys wearing masks climbed onboard and attacked an 8th grade student, two of the boys punching and kicking the victim, making sure he didn’t leave the bus, with the third waving a gun around. The boy with the gun attempted to shoot it at the victim three separate times, and each time, it malfunctioned.
The attackers ran off, and police later found three 9mm bullets on the bus’s floor.
Two of the boys police say were involved in the attack, who remain unnamed as 14 and 15-year-old minors, appeared in a Prince George’s County courtroom on Friday.
Despite their ages, the boys are being charged as adults with attempted first degree murder and, at their lawyers’ request, are being held at the county’s adult jail. The armed 15-year-old police say tried to kill the victim remains on the loose.
During the hearing, the lead detective investigating the attack testified that the victim initially lied to him about knowing who his attackers were. But after the teen’s mother granted police permission to search her child’s cell phone, deleted text messages were recovered that named the three boys being charged in the case, the detective testified. The teen then admitted who his attackers were, including two former classmates he’s known for a couple of years.
After the hearing, Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy vented frustration with this particular incident, the rise in juvenile crime around the county, and recent changes to state law that she suggested aren’t working.
“Wild is a correct term,” said Braveboy, echoing a description of the incident made by one of the assistant state’s attorneys inside the courtroom. “I think tragic, horrific, unbelievable, unacceptable. What happened on that school bus was completely outside of what is reasonable to expect on any bus.
“The tragedy that could have happened on the bus that day was almost unimaginable,” she added.
While some of the lesser charges against the boys, misdemeanors related to gun possession, were dismissed since they were never seen actually holding a weapon, the most serious felony charges are still hanging over the two teenagers.
“If they were successful in completing what they wanted to do, we may have had a dead child,” said Braveboy. “That’s how we’re looking at it.”
She also suggested that parents and teenagers don’t seem to understand that choosing to be around the wrong people can lead to a lifetime of consequences.
“Young people today have to understand that if they are in a group, if any individual in a group has a weapon, even if they don’t have one themselves, if someone in that group has a weapon and they intend to do harm, everyone is responsible,” Braveboy said. “Everyone will be charged for the appropriate crimes they committed.”
Though the case is currently being pursued through the adult legal system, it is still possible the case could be waived to the juvenile courts in the coming weeks. But Braveboy said recent legislation passed at the state level has impacted the legal system around the state.
“I intend to work with our legislature, let them know exactly what is happening, the results that we are seeing based on some of the changes in state law that has impacted some of the cases,” she said. “I understand the goal of ensuring children have the ability to be rehabilitated. I absolutely agree that should be a goal of any justice system. However, consequences must also be a part of that system because consequences help people to understand that what they’re doing is wrong and that if they do it again, they will be punished.
“The victims feel the impact of these crimes that are committed against them sometimes for a lifetime,” Braveboy continued. “Young people need to understand that. They have to take responsibility. Their parents have to be more engaged and involved in their lives and we have to do things differently. That is not an option. We have to do things differently.”
