The price of preying upon easy targets

One crime spree targeted convenience stores, pizza places and their delivery drivers, while the other involved kidnapping Lyft and Uber drivers and then luring their customers into armed robberies.

“More than 80 crimes impacting more than 100 Marylanders—-many of whom were simply at work or going on about their daily routine when they were unexpectedly targeted and victimized,” said Chief Deputy Attorney General Candace McLaren Lanham.

Police say in all of the cases, the suspects were teenagers. In most of them, they used illegal handguns and in some of them, they turned quite violent.

In one such instance, the group driving a stolen car, carjacked two victims, but they were after far more than just their vehicle.

“The male was forced into the back of his own vehicle and was driven to multiple locations in Baltimore County and Baltimore City before being forced to withdraw $1,500 from an ATM,” said Attorney General Criminal Division Chief Katie Dorian, “Meanwhile, the female occupant was forced into the other vehicle where one member of the group forcibly raped her at gunpoint.”

Eleven suspects, all of them from Baltimore City, now face indictments—-and two of them face more than 200 various counts apiece.

Mayor Brandon Scott says if youths involved in crime don’t consider the consequences, their parents should on their behalf.

“If you know that your young person is involved in something that they should not be, speak up now,” said Scott, “Don’t wait until your child is indicted, is arrested with some heinous crime to say, ‘Mr. Mayor, my baby’s a good child.’ Do it now.”