Press Release
☷Second KDY Crew Member Pleads Guilty to Violent Crime Spree of Multiple Carjackings and Armed Robberies
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ( By Press Release office)
Jan 27,2024
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The other guy involved got sentenced to 15 years earlier this month . Azriel Ethan Echavarria , a 22 - year - old from Washington , D . C . , pleaded guilty today to a bunch of carjackings and armed robberies that he did with two other people in 2022 . The plea was announced by U . S . Attorney Matthew M . Graves , Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department , ATF Special Agent in Charge Craig Kailimai of the Washington Field Division , DEA Special Agent in Charge Jarod Forget of the Washington Division , Chief Malik Aziz of the Prince George’s County , Maryland , Police Department , and Chief Marcus G . Jones of the Montgomery County , Maryland , Police Department . Echavarria pleaded guilty in U . S . District Court today to a bunch of stuff , like stealing stuff from businesses and people and stealing cars at gunpoint . Echavarria will be sentenced on May 10 . One of his partners in crime , Tyrell Jordan Stewart , got sentenced to 15 years in prison on Jan . 12 for the same stuff . If this case had gone to trial , the U . S . Attorney’s Office would have proven that Echavarria planned with his buddies to rob and carjack a bunch of people and businesses in the D . C . area . They did at least 5 robberies , 2 carjackings , and 12 armed robberies during their crime spree . According to the evidence , Echavarria and his friends are part of a gang called the Kennedy Street Crew , and they did all this violence in the first three months of 2022 . They would plan their crimes the night before and do them early in the morning . They would usually steal a car to use in their robberies and sell it later . They were also pretty violent with their victims . For example , on Feb . 8 , 2022 , Echavarria and his buddies went to Chevy Chase , Maryland , to steal a Toyota Rav4 . That same morning , MCPD officers also responded to an armed robbery at a mini market in Rockville , Maryland . Again , one of the accomplices fired their gun to intimidate the cashier . All three men fled the store in the same stolen Ridgeline from earlier . At 7:25 a . m . , an MCPD officer spotted the stolen Ridgeline and Lexus SUV and chased them southbound on 16th Street at speeds over 100 mph . The officer eventually lost sight of both vehicles . That same morning , Echavarria and his accomplices committed an armed robbery of someone at a bus stop near the D . C . /Maryland line . One of the armed men choked the victim while the other hit them in the face . They stole the victim ' s wallet and ran away . More carjackings and violent robberies followed . Early on the morning of March 2 , Echavarria and his co - conspirators drove a stolen black Dodge Charger from Northeast Washington to Maryland . In Riverdale , they spotted a driver inside a black Audi A6 sedan in a parking lot and blocked the Audi in with the Charger . On Feb . 20 , 2022 , Echavarria and his accomplices stole a Honda Ridgeline truck in Silver Spring , Maryland , around 6 a . m . Soon after , there were reports of suspects in a black Ridgeline truck trying to break into other vehicles . That same morning , Montgomery County Police Department ( MCPD ) officers responded to a convenience store in Kensington , Maryland . Three armed men had entered the store and robbed the cashier of money and a cell phone . While one accomplice robbed the register , Echavarria held a customer in a chokehold . When the customer resisted , the other accomplice fired a shot to scare the customer into complying . As they left , Echavarria approached another customer , threatened them with a gun , and took their car keys . The three armed men fled in the customer ' s Lexus SUV . Two of the gunmen got out of the Charger and pointed their guns at the driver . The driver handed over their keys and wallet . The gunmen took off in the stolen Audi towards the District . Shortly after , Echavarria and his co - defendants went into a convenience store on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring and robbed the clerk at gunpoint , taking $500 and lottery tickets . Echavarria was arrested on Feb . 6 , 2023 , in Washington D . C . This case , along with his two codefendants , is part of an ongoing investigation into the Kennedy Street Crew involving multiple law enforcement agencies . It is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces ( OCDETF ) investigation that targets high - level drug traffickers , money launderers , gangs , and criminal organizations that threaten the United States . The FBI Washington Field Office , Metropolitan Police Department , Montgomery County Police Department , Prince George ' s County Police Department , and ATF ' s Washington Field Division are all involved in the investigation . The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U . S . Attorneys Matthew W . Kinskey and Sitara Witanachchi of the U . S . Attorney ' s Office for the District of Columbia ' s Violence Reduction and Trafficking Offenses Section , with assistance from former Special Assistant U . S . Attorney Brian Lynch .
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