There’s been a disturbing update regarding the murder of Mohammad Anwar, brought to us by our Townhall colleague Matt Vespa yesterday. The unnamed 13 and 15-year-old girls were caught on video attempting an armed carjacking of the Uber Eats driver, resulting in his death. Despite a hefty list of charges filed against them, it’s being reported that a plea deal is in the works and they might not ever even face trial. One of the major sticking points appears to be the difficulty of charging underage suspects as adults in the District. It will prove impossible for the younger of the two and unlikely for the older one.

They murdered him. These two girls murdered him—and it looks like they’ll get the equivalent to a slap on the wrist for such a heinous crime. In March, two teenage girls, aged 13 and 15, tried to carjack Mohammad Anwar’s vehicle in broad daylight. It was all captured on video. Anwar, who worked for Uber Eats, is seen pleading for assistance as the two girls, who were armed with a taser, tried to take his car. One of them hits the gas as Anwar hangs on for his life. The car crashes, with one of the suspects asking the whereabouts of her phone. Anwar’s dead body is feet from her, and she cares more about the cell phone. And now, plea deals are said to be offered. The younger suspect cannot be tried for any crime as an adult, even for murder

The WaPo is describing the prospects of a trial as “possible but not likely.” The girls have been charged with felony murder, carjacking, armed robbery and other offenses. How they simply skip out on a plea deal is a mystery best explained by laws that still treat every teenager as if they are simply confused children in need of reform. The older of the two girs is suspected in a previous carjacking the preceding month.

Both of them have pleaded “not involved,” which is the equivalent of a not guilty plea in adult court. And they did that despite knowing that their crimes had been captured on video. As Matt goes on to note, CNN has been doing the heavy lifting of trying to downplay this attack as “an accident.” I guess they accidentally picked up a Tazer before accidentally demanding he surrender his vehicle and accidentally blasting his car into a wall and flipping it over.

What is motivating the prosecutors in this case? Plea bargains are generally reserved for cases where the state is concerned that they might not be able to get a conviction or are at least getting some sort of cooperation in return. They have the entire attack on video. Even if you can only convict them in juvenile court, that would at least be better than nothing. And the 15-year-old is supposed to be eligible to be tried as an adult. But in D.C., the judge won’t allow the transfer to adult court unless there is “no reasonable prospects for rehabilitation.” Something tells me that if you’re pulling off armed carjackings by the age of 15, that ship has already sailed.

Like many other woke cities, the District has been experiencing an explosion of carjackings this year. (Nearly 100 in the first three months, which is three times more than the same period last year.) Most of these attacks are being organized by criminal gangs who frequently enlist the services of underage wannabes because they know they won’t face much punishment in court if they’re arrested. And from the sounds of this week’s news, their expectations are about to be met yet again.