District Man Pleads Guilty to Armed Kidnapping

Two International Students Abducted During Visit to District

           WASHINGTON – Andre Allen, 21, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty today for his role in an armed kidnapping and robbery that began in the District of Columbia and continued into Maryland, announced U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu, Timothy M. Dunham, Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Division, FBI Washington Field Office, and Peter Newsham, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

           Allen pled guilty before the Honorable Dabney L. Friedrich in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to one count of kidnapping. He faces a sentence of up to life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Friedrich on March 13, 2020.

           The government’s evidence established that just before midnight on June 3, 2018, the victims were standing on a sidewalk located just south of Lincoln Park in Capitol Hill when the defendant, wearing a mask covering the lower half of his face, approached the victims brandishing a firearm. Allen demanded money from the victims and searched the victims and their luggage before forcing them at gunpoint into a stolen black Audi sedan.

           After the victims were forced into the stolen Audi, Allen then drove into Maryland and forced them to withdraw money from an ATM located in Clinton, Maryland, in the early hours of June 4, 2018. After the victims had provided money to the defendant, he dropped them off in a dimly-lit area where they were able to run to a nearby laundromat and call for help.

           Shortly after dropping the victims off, Allen then attempted to use one of the victim’s ATM cards at a gas station in Temple Hills, Maryland. Allen later contacted an electronics resale store attempting to sell a laptop belonging to one of the victims.

           This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department, the Washington Field Office’s Violent Crime Safe Streets Task Force and the Prince George’s County Police. The Violent Crime Task Force is charged with investigating and bringing to justice the most egregious violent criminal actors within the District of Columbia and is composed of FBI Agents working cooperatively with MPD and other Capital Region law enforcement agencies.

           In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Liu, Special Agent in Charge Dunham, and Chief Newsham, commended the work of the FBI Agents, MPD officers, and Prince George’s County police officers who investigated the armed kidnapping. They also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Crane, Paralegal Specialist Rommel, and Legal Assistant Peter Gaboton.