Dieneba Sekou Traore, a 48-year-old mother from Columbia, has been handed a 20-year prison sentence after a shooting incident that left two teenagers wounded. The shooting took place in a Howard County shopping center parking lot last year, as reported by WMAR2 News.
On the evening of October 12, 2024, Howard County officers swiftly responded to the 8800 block of Centre Park Drive, where they discovered two teens, injured from gunshots to their legs. The incident prompted a thorough investigation, leading authorities to connect the dots back to Traore, who seemingly took matters into her own hands following an armed robbery that allegedly involved her son a week prior.
Traore had accused the teens of complicity in the incident and had openly stated her willingness to effectively step outside the law if police failed to act promptly. She was found guilty on multiple charges, which included two counts of attempted second-degree murder, according to WBALTV. Charging documents revealed that after her son was robbed, Traore had confronted the parents of one of the suspected juveniles, directly accusing their son. Her frustration with the pace of the police investigation was later expressed in a statement to the authorities, “What I care about is not putting us in a position where we have to be the ones to protect our kids when (you all) are the ones hired to do that,” Traore said, according to the charging documents…