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Fort Washington resident Rico Dashiell was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison by US Judge George Russell for his role in the violent armed robbery of an Owiing Mills phone store in 2020.
In December 2020, Dashiell and two co-conspirators walked into the phone store, where he pretended to be a customer before brandishing a gun, pointing it at an employee, and saying “yeah, you know what time it is ... If you don’t want to die today, do what I say,” according to prosecutors.
Dashiell and his two cohorts then pointed their weapons at victim employees and customers while yelling “get down.”
US Attorney Erek Barron said that Dashiell then ordered an employee to walk to the back of the store and open the safe. Once it was opened, the trio stole 76 devices, including a GPS tracker within a cellphone box.
As they left the room with the safe, authorities said that a co-conspirator pepper-sprayed an employee and the group fled in a car that was reported stolen earlier that day.
The stolen vehicle was tracked to a single-family home in Catonsville, where ariel units filmed Dashiell and his co-conspirators unloading the stolen merchandise from the robbery and bringing it inside the residence.
After law enforcement investigators evacuated two children from the residence, officers executed a search warrant and arrested all three men, prosecutors said.
During the search, investigators recovered:
- The gloves, clothing, and headwear worn by the robbers;
- The 76 devices stolen from the cellular retail store;
- The canister of pepper spray that was used to assault victims;
- A victim’s wallet;
- Three loaded .9mm semi-automatic firearms.
Officials noted that two of the guns either did not possess a serial number or displayed an obliterated serial number.
“This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone,” the Department of Justice announced.
“On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results."
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