A 14-year-old boy indicted on one count of first-degree murder will be tried as an adult, after a basketball game involving a group of teens turned deadly in Germantown, Maryland, earlier this month.
The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office announced a grand jury indictment Thursday, saying that Maryland state law mandates that Shilen Ahmadi Wylie, 14, be charged as an adult.
“Maryland state law mandates that a child at least 14 years old alleged to have done an act that, if committed by an adult, would be a crime punishable by life imprisonment — will be charged as an adult,” a statement from Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s John McCarthy said.
Twenty-year-old Axel Trejos was killed during the incident and three teens — age 16, 15 and 13 — were wounded.
Wylie was allegedly ordered to shoot the four young men by 17-year-old Samuel Lee Powers during a basketball game at the Germantown Plum Car Community Center on Aug. 18. Wylie is also charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count each of firearm use and possessing a regulated firearm under the age of 21.
Police issued an arrest warrant Aug. 26 for Powers, charging him with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. On Sept. 1, Powers turned himself in.
On Sept. 2 Powers was held without bond in a District Court proceeding. He is not eligible to be transferred to a juvenile facility due to his age at the time of the alleged crime, per Maryland code, according to McCarthy’s office.
Powers is charged with one count of first-degree murder and three counts of conspiracy to commit murder.
According to the indictment, an eyewitness said Powers “told Wylie to shoot the victims and at that time, Wylie produced a handgun and began shooting the victims.”
Montgomery County police were called to the community center at 19561 Scenery Drive around 10 p.m. on Aug 18.
Initial police accounts reveal that a confrontation between a third person with Wylie and Powers led to the gunfire.
After the shooting, the four males were sent separately to Holy Cross Hospital in Germantown, Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Children’s National Medical Center in D.C. and INOVA Hospital in Virginia.
A lookout call was broadcast over police radio and when Wylie was stopped by police near the scene, he was in possession of a 9 mm handgun — the same caliber handgun used in the shooting, according to the indictment.
Police called the shooting an isolated incident.
