A man already accused of stabbing four people was free to strike again — And last week that man, Abdul Jalloh, was arrested, this time for murder.
A Richmond Highway bus stop became a bloody crime scene last week. Jalloh was charged with murder, accused of fatally stabbing Stepanie Minter.
Larry Gross says when he heard about the crime, it reminded him of when he was attacked Feb. 2023.
Gross says he was pulling his shopping cart to a Richmond Highway 7-Eleven near his townhouse when Jalloh came at him, first stealing his cellphone.
“He came right at me, and he stabbed me. He tried to stab me, and the knife broke,” Gross said. “[…] I looked, unzipped and there was blood there.”
Jalloh later pleaded guilty to malicious wounding — It was one of 30 times police say he’d been
charged with a crime. And even though he’d been arrested before for a rape andthree other stabbings, the attack on Gross was the first time there was a felony conviction. Jalloh was sentenced to two years with five years of time suspended.
“I figured he’s in jail. When he gets out, they’ll do something with him,” Gross said.
But Jalloh wasn’t out of jail long before he was arrested again two times, and that triggered a probation violation, bringing him back to court and the possibility he could be put back in jail.
But a court document shows the prosecutor and defense attorney reached an agreement. Jalloh was found in violation of probation, but instead of prosecutors asking that his suspended prison time be imposed, it was just resuspended and his probation was ended — meaning no one was keeping watch any longer.
The commonwealth’s attorney’s spokeswoman told News4 under court guidelines, he could have only served six more months and that he’d already been in jail 100 days.
The office previously said they had to drop other serious cases against Jalloh because witnesses didn’t come to court.
“It’s somewhat perplexing that the clear public safety menace that this man posed was not understood by the commonwealth’s attorney,” said Sean Kennedy, who heads Virginians for Safe Communities. “The police understood. They kept arresting him. They kept putting charges on him, and the commonwealth’s attorney clearly didn’t see him as a threat.”
“The justice system works in mysterious ways,” Gross said. “That’s all I have to say about that.”
But Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also has questions to answer. In a statement, ICE said Jalloh entered the country illegally in 2012. ICE says they lodged a detainer on him in 2020 and got an order of removal.
News4 is awaiting word on why ICE did not pick up Jalloh after any of his many stays at the Fairfax County jail in recent years.
“If ICE didn’t do their job and remove him when they had the opportunity, then part of the blame lands on them,” Kennedy said. “What happened, what paperwork error happened, was there a judge involved that blocked deportation?”
ICE issued a statement asking Virginia authorities not to release Jalloh without notifying them. He’s being held without bond.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/JXd3SN4
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