September 29th, 2015 by WCBC Radio
A 33-year-man from New York and Cumberland — a co-defendant in a 2011 Ridgeley, W.Va. shooting that killed one man and injured his brother — was arrested Monday within hours of a stabbing incident that caused numerous wounds to a 24-year-old male victim.
According to the C3I Unit and the Cumberland Police Department, 33-year-old Rasshammach Roberts was charged with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and related charges.
The victim was taken to the Western Maryland Regional Medical Center by a Cumberland Fire Department ambulance following the 10:53 a.m. incident in the Maryland Avenue 7-Eleven parking lot. He was treated for cuts to the arm and torso, police said. No information was available concerning his condition.
Roberts was arrested by C3I investigators with assistance from Maryland State Police and the C3I Warrant/Fugitive Unit.
The arrest was made after the vehicle reportedly operated by Roberts at the time of the stabbing was located behind a business in Potomac Park. A warrant was obtained to search the vehicle for evidence. The crime scene was processed by an evidence collection technician with the Maryland State Police Forensics Sciences Unit.
Police also said evidence from the alleged stabbing was found in the LaVale motel room where Roberts was eventually taken into custody.
Interviews with witnesses and review of video surveillance reportedly showed the suspect pulled up to the victim's vehicle while the victim was inside the 7-Eleven store. The suspect then reportedly walked to the back of the vehicle and approached the victim, who was standing at the door to his own vehicle. The suspect then allegedly took out a sharp cutting instrument — possibly a box cutter —and stabbed the victim several times, police said.
Police said the victim re-entered the store to seek assistance and the suspect got back into his vehicle and drove from the scene onto Maryland Avenue in the direction of Williams Street.
The Cumberland Times News reports that according to court documents, Roberts was a co-defendant in the September 2011 shooting in Ridgeley, W.Va., that killed Ryan Henry, 25, and seriously injured his brother, Ryan. Roberts entered a plea last year and was released. The case never went to a jury trial. Family members couldn't agree on who the shooter was and it couldn't be proved beyond a reasonable doubt who was the shooter, Jay Courrier, Mineral County prosecuting attorney said previously.
Taj Green and co-defendants Rasjahnon Roberts, Rasshammach Roberts and Tavon Kearney were indicted by a Mineral County grand jury in September 2012 on felony counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, malicious wounding, attempted murder, conspiracy to inflict injury and three felony counts of wanton endangerment involving a firearm.
Both Roberts brothers made plea agreements that were contingent upon testifying truthfully against Green. They both were there for the trial, had it proceeded, according to Courrier.
Rasshammach Roberts, who initially evaded police following the Ridgeley incident, was taken into custody for the alleged homicide in April 2012 by the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., shortly after he was featured on “America’s Most Wanted.”
