Many people worried about a potential rise in crime when inmates were released from jail prematurely in some areas on the pretense of curbing coronavirus outbreaks. Now, it appears that those fears were warranted as a suspected rapist who was freed from jail out of COVID-19 concerns has now been charged with murdering his alleged rape victim.
Last year, Ibrahim Bouaichi was indicted on charges of abduction, rape and strangulation in Alexandria, Virginia, and jailed without bond. His victim, Karla Dominguez, testified against him in the case.
Bouaichi’s attorneys argued in April that he should be freed from jail to protect him and his attorneys from contracting coronavirus, and he was subsequently released on a $25,000 bond pending trial despite the prosecutor’s objections. A condition of his release was that he could only leave his home in Maryland to meet lawyers or pretrial services officials.
Less than a month after being released, he was arrested in early May for ramming a K9 officer’s vehicle. He was charged with counts including harming a law enforcement dog and first-degree assault. Local authorities in the case say they had not been notified of the charges he was facing in Prince George’s County or they would have tried to revoke his bond.
Instead, he remained free. The 33-year-old tracked down Dominguez and shot her dead outside her apartment in late July. He then shot himself following a law enforcement chase last Wednesday and later died from the self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The judge who set him free, Circuit Court Judge Nolan Dawkins, retired earlier this summer and has not responded to requests for comments from the media.
According to police, Dominguez was from Venezuela and did not have any family in the U.S.
How many more tragic cases like this one will we hear about in the coming months and years?
The justice system absolutely failed this young woman, and it will be sad but not surprising if we hear about other cases like this one as liberal cities continue to brag about how many prisoners they have released during the coronavirus pandemic.
In New York, Rikers Island released high-risk inmates over the age of 70 except for those who had been charged with sexual or domestic violence offenses. In June, the NYPD revealed that 10 percent of Rikers inmates who were granted coronavirus-related releases had been rearrested – some of them multiple times.
According to the New York Post, of the 2,500 inmates who had been let go from the biggest jail in the city, 250 committed almost 450 new crimes. One broke into an out-of-state doctor’s hotel room who had come to help fight the pandemic, stealing around $11,000 worth of items.
Another criminal who was released has been arrested and then let go three times since then for breaking a bodega window with a brick and stealing socks, robbing someone’s cell phone with a box cutter, and stealing food from a grocery store.
In San Francisco, the county jail’s inmate population has been reduced by almost half since January to stem coronavirus outbreaks. All of those released are said to be non-violent.
California prison officials recently said that up to 17,600 state inmates could be released early because of the virus, which is 70 percent more than previous estimates. Making matters worse, several hundred inmates have been paroled while contagious. So far, California has released 3,500 inmates in April and a further 6,900 in early July.
While it is easy to see how the cramped conditions in jails could promote viral outbreaks, the risk to the general public, and past victims in particular, is far greater when dangerous criminals are released out onto the streets.
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