Ten teens charged in gang-related stabbings

Attorney says denial of bond was ‘overreaching,’ asks for review

The incidents sent three people to the hospital with stab wounds, including one mentally disabled man.

The teens are being held without bond; another youth, a 12-year-old boy, was charged as a juvenile and eventually released to family members.

‘‘For these [teenagers] to be charged as adults without knowing the roles they played and [without] the opportunity to be released on bond is a bit overreaching on the part of law enforcement and the state,” said Rene Sandler, the Rockville lawyer representing Carl Thomas, 16. Thomas is charged in two stabbings — one at the Wheaton Metro station and the other at a party on Bel Pre Road.

Sandler said she has already filed for reconsideration with the court to review Thomas’ bond.

Officer Rob Musser, an investigator with the gang unit for Montgomery County Police, said he was aware of the group of teens who were part of the Hotboyz⁄Shoot Em’ Up gang, and that the gang went by other names, such as Pitch Black.

Police have alleged that all of the teens arrested, however, were involved in the stabbing incidents and beatings in some way. Sandler would not comment on whether Thomas was involved in the Hotboyz⁄Shoot Em’ Up gang.

Idrissa Turay, father of Alansan Turey, 17, who was also charged with a stabbing that occurred at the Wheaton Metro station, said he did not believe his son committed the acts that police allege he did.

‘‘He was involved in a fight and they arrested him,” Idrissa Turay said. ‘‘I didn’t expect him to have those charges at all.”

The string of incidents started 7 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Wheaton Metro station when Turay and Thomas allegedly stabbed two other teenagers, according to Cathy Asato, a spokeswoman for Metro Transit Police. The victims told Metro Transit Police they believed the teenagers who stabbed them were gang members.

When police arrived, there were about 10 to 15 young men present. Metro Transit Police are still investigating, Asato said.

Musser said the victims appear to have been enemies of the gang, but police do not know if they were members of a rival gang.

Later at 8:40 p.m., Montgomery County Police were called to a fight in progress outside a home in the 3700 block of Bel Pre Road in Wheaton. Officers found a man who was bleeding and a group of about 20 males outside the home.

Police said that incident began when one of the males was apparently trying to break into a white 1991 Toyota Celica, which was owned by the party’s host. When people from the party came outside to see what was going on, another one of the males displayed a handgun, and then everyone went back inside the party — except the mentally disabled Silver Spring man, 31, who was beaten with the handgun, kicked and then stabbed.

According to police, partygoers say they did not know the victim had been assaulted. He was released from the hospital on Monday.

The third incident occurred about 7 p.m. Feb. 26 when the father of one of the Metro station stabbing victims was at Rock Creek Shopping Center, 5500 Norbeck Road, where he was approached by two teenagers and told that one of them had stabbed his son. He called police, but the teenagers had left before they arrived.

A short time later, the same officers responded to the area of the 3800 block of Dunsinane Drive for a disorderly conduct call and three people were taken into custody. Five people were eventually arrested Monday and charged as adults with attempted murder, robbery and assault, including brothers Roger Ghonda, 14 and Ony Ghonda, 16, of the unit block of Tynewick Court in Silver Spring; Turay, 17, of the 3800 block of Dunsinane Drive in Silver Spring; Dumisani Tembo, 17, of the 13200 block of Hathaway Drive in Silver Spring; and Thomas, 16, of the 13200 block of Hathaway Drive in Silver Spring. Turay and Thomas were additionally charged by Metro Transit Police for the stabbing that occurred at the Wheaton Metro station, county police said.

Five more teenagers were arrested Feb. 28 and charged as adults with attempted first-degree murder, armed robbery and first-degree assault, including brothers Gilbert Wiche Oriji, 14, and Guyton Mecko Oriji, 16, of the 5000 block of Aspen Hill Road in Rockville; Alexander Mulugeta Tewolde, 17, of the 3600 block of Bel Pre Road in Silver Spring; Wesley Alexander Ruiz, 16, of the 1800 block of Middlebridge Drive in Silver Spring; and Pernell Ricks, 16, of the 16700 block of Frontenac Terrace in Derwood.

The 12-year-old boy, a Silver Spring resident, was charged as a juvenile with attempted first-degree murder, robbery and first-degree assault.

It is unknown which teenagers were at which incidents; however, Montgomery County Police could confirm that Ricks, Tembo and Thomas were at the Feb. 24 party and were identified by police as they were walking down Bel Pre Road later that night.