State’s Attorney for Wicomico County Briefs Judiciary Committee on Increase in Juvenile Crime
State’s Attorney Jamie Dykes for Wicomico County, together with the State’s Attorneys from Montgomery County and Howard County and the Deputy State’s Attorneys from Baltimore City and Charles County, briefed the Judiciary Committee of the Maryland House of Delegates on the concerning increase in juvenile crime. State’s Attorney Dykes’ comments focused on the effects of the Child Interrogation Protection Act, enacted last year, which practically eliminated the ability of law enforcement to interview juvenile suspects. Dykes mentioned the mass shooting that occurred in Salisbury early in the morning on July 5th, which left a 15-year-old boy dead and seven others wounded, including two children.
This briefing follows Governor Moore’s recent comments stressing the need to address juvenile crime and hold adult repeat offenders accountable. State’s Attorney Dykes has been working with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to draft legislation to address these challenges – increasing the ability of the juvenile court to supervise and provide services to juveniles, revising the interrogation law to give law enforcement more investigative tools, and enhancing penalties for repeat offenders that commit crimes using firearms.
State’s Attorney for Wicomico County–Jamie Dykes, while speaking to the Judiciary Committee about the effects of the Child Interrogation Protection Act, enacted last year, pointing to an incident in April that left one child dead and another charged with his murder. Three shooters were involved, and she says only one of them–a 15-year-old has been charged at this point–who fatally shot a 16-year-old fellow high school student and injured a 21-year-old…
While the teen soon became a suspect, she says investigators were prevented from interviewing him and as a result, it took two months to secure evidence to charge him and take him into custody. She says the other two shooters have not been charged and may never be.
