Two suspects have been arrested in connection to the break-in of a Secret Service vehicle parked outside the Washington, DC, home of President Biden’s granddaughter, according to court documents and the federal law enforcement agency.
Robert Kemp, 19, and an unnamed juvenile were taken into custody earlier this month after a Secret Service investigation into the November 2023 incident in DC’s tony Georgetown neighborhood, where Naomi Biden lives and receives Secret Service protection.
Kemp was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle and theft from auto, according to the Secret Service.
However, court filings in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia only list the unauthorized use of a vehicle charge – related to a stolen Toyota Corolla used as the getaway car – being brought against Kemp, who was released the day after his Feb. 7 arrest.
The Secret Service says Kemp made off with at least $1,000 in gear from a black Ford Expedition “used for members of the first family” during the brazen heist, including a police vest, night vision goggles, a portable router and chemical sticks, according to an affidavit.
A Secret Service agent assigned to Naomi Biden’s detail on the night of Nov. 12, 2023, “observed a black male, legs hanging out of the broken driver side rear window” of the government vehicle when he approached one of the suspects and stated “police,” according to the complaint.
The suspect then jumped in the getaway car and the driver reversed it, nearly striking an agent, who fired his weapon at the vehicle during the incident, the document states.
A spokesman for the Secret Service said last November that “it is believed no one was struck” by the agent’s bullet.
The juvenile suspect, a 14-year-old male, believed to have been involved in the break-in was arrested last Friday and charged with three counts of armed carjacking, unrelated to the Georgetown crime, according to the Washington Post.
The affidavit notes that the Secret Service’s investigation found that the juvenile suspect had been wearing a court-ordered GPS tracking device that put him in Naomi Biden’s Georgetown neighborhood at the time of the break-in.
The youth’s fingerprints, as well as Kemp’s, were also found on a McDonald’s receipt and bag found in the recovered getaway car.
The nation’s capital has seen a sharp rise in carjackings and vehicle thefts since last year. In 2023, DC police received reports of more than 900 carjackings and over 6,000 stolen vehicles.
The crime wave has even affected members of Congress.
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) was carjacked at gunpoint last October near the US Capitol Building by three armed assailants.
