New York authorities had Abubakarr Barrie in custody in July and released him despite a request from federal immigration officers to turn him over, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Three months later, a 15-year-old girl told Baltimore police she had fought her way out of a basement where Barrie allegedly stabbed her repeatedly. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin blamed New York’s sanctuary policies for leaving Barrie free when the girl accepted a ride from him on October 22nd.
The New York Police Department had arrested Barrie, a 23-year-old from Sierra Leone, on a charge of third-degree possession of a forged instrument. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer after that arrest, according to federal officials. New York authorities declined to honor it. By October, Barrie was renting a basement on Garrison Boulevard in northwest Baltimore.
The teenager told investigators she thought Barrie was driving an unlicensed cab. She wanted a ride to a carryout restaurant on Belair Road and gave him her destination. Once she got in the car, she told police, Barrie began driving in the wrong direction. She said he restrained her and drove her to the house on Garrison Boulevard.
The Department of Homeland Security released its account of Barrie’s immigration history on October 30th. Border Patrol agents had arrested him in Arizona in December 2023 after he crossed into the United States illegally. The Biden administration subsequently released him into the country. Mullin singled out both that decision and New York’s handling of the July arrest. “This tragedy would never have happened were it not for the multiple failures of sanctuary policies,” he said.
In charging documents described by Baltimore’s WMAR-2 News, the girl said Barrie forced her inside the house and told her to put down her phone and keep quiet. She told investigators he stabbed her multiple times before she managed to get her hands on a fire extinguisher. The station reported that she used it to fight him off, escaped the house and began knocking on neighbors’ doors. Someone let her use a phone to call her mother and 911.
Emergency responders took the teenager to Sinai Hospital. As detectives worked to identify the driver, a phone number tied to a Cash App account led them to Barrie. They found a vehicle registered in his name that matched the description the girl had given them. Her own iPhone 14 was missing after the attack, and she tracked it to the Garrison Boulevard address.
Baltimore police said investigators arrested Barrie on October 24th in the 3700 block of Garrison Boulevard, two days after the girl escaped. Officers took him to the Central Booking Intake Facility. The charges included attempted first- and second-degree murder, kidnapping and assault. A judge ordered him held without bond, Baltimore station WBAL-TV reported.
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ICE filed its second detainer for Barrie on the day Baltimore investigators took him into custody. This time, federal officers were asking Maryland authorities to turn him over if he became eligible for release from local custody. In his October 30th statement, Mullin directed his appeal to Baltimore County authorities, urging them to “learn from sanctuary New York’s mistakes” and honor the detainer.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.