A 17-year-old boy was arrested as a suspect in the killing of a man working as a rideshare driver Saturday in Hillcrest Heights, Maryland, police say.
Abdul Rauf Khan, of Springfield, Virginia, died after he was shot multiple times, Prince George’s County police said. He picked up a fare in D.C. as a Lyft driver and then was attacked, police said. His car was stolen.
Khan was 71 and is survived by his wife and 16-year-old daughter, relatives said.
The teen suspect was charged as an adult with first-degree murder and carjacking, police said Wednesday.
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"I just want justice for my husband, for me and my daughter, because I don't want anything [like that] to happen to anybody else. He just put my life upside down," Khan's wife, Saba Rauf, said through tears at a police news conference Wednesday afternoon.
On Tuesday, officers stopped Khan's stolen car at the intersection of Garrett A. Morgan Boulevard and Central Avenue in Landover. Three people were inside the car at the time: two juveniles and an adult, police said.
Officers took all three into custody, and the 17-year-old now charged in Khan's murder confessed to killing him during the carjacking, police said.
"His murder was senseless. Another senseless act of violence," Police Chief Malik Aziz said. "And now that person in custody is only 17 years old."
"There should be harsh punishment for these youngsters who are doing this thing, because if there is no consequences, they will keep on doing it," Khan's nephew Agha Ali said at the news conference.
A second 17-year-old boy from D.C. was charged in connection with a carjacking on Marlboro Pike that happened hours after Khan's murder, police said. Police said Khan’s stolen car was used in that carjacking.
The third person in the car,19-year-old Daquan Childs, of D.C., was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, according to police.
Khan was found lying in the 3700 block of Dunlap Street, a residential block. Officers responded at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday and found that Khan had multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
He was respected in his Fairfax County community, and more than 200 people called to express their condolences, Ali, his nephew, said.
“This guy was a community figure for 20 years, you know. He knew so many people,” Ali said. “These people, they don’t have no value. They just killed him and left him on the street, you know, like he’s nobody. This is the worst part of it.”
Khan moved to the U.S. from Pakistan in search of a better life, his family said.
"I don't know what to do, because he was the pillar of our life, and now ... my life is over," Khan's wife said. "When I told [my daughter] that I'm coming here, she said, 'Just ask one question: Did my dad call my name when the guy shot him?'"
In 2017, Khan was hailed as a hero and received an award for bravery for intervening as an Alexandria, Virginia, police officer was attacked.
“He jumped in and he saved that police officer’s life,” Ali said.
Khan’s death comes amid a rash of violent carjackings committed by young people in the D.C. area. The crimes have been committed by children as young as 12, officials from the District and Prince George’s County said at a joint news conference last month.
A Virginia man working as an Uber Eats driver died in March 2021 after he was carjacked by a 13-year-old girl and 15-year-old girl in the Navy Yard neighborhood of D.C. Mohammad Anwar — also a Pakistani immigrant who lived in Springfield — was 66. He’s survived by his children and grandchildren.
