Arrests made in alleged kidnapping, bank robbery scheme

By Freeman KlopottExaminer Staff Writer 12/29/08 A District man and a Silver Spring man have been charged for their alleged roles in a kidnapping and bank robbery scheme that stretched from Friday night through Saturday, Maryland State Police said Sunday.
Friday evening, Yohannes Surafel, 24, of the District, and Yosef Tadele, 23, of Silver Spring, followed a SunTrust Bank employee from a Silver Spring branch to her Clinton home, police said. As the woman made her way inside the house around 7:30 p.m., police said the two men attacked her. Yosef Tadele, 23, of Silver Spring, stands accused of kidnapping a Clinton family and attempting to rob a bank. Courtesy photo
They tied up the woman and her husband with electric cords and held them and their two sons, ages 8 and 11, all night, police said. Saturday morning, police said Surafel forced all four family members into a car and made the woman’s husband drive them to the bank, which Surafel planned to rob.
On the way to the bank the husband saw a state trooper and began driving erratically to get his attention. When the trooper pulled over the family’s car around 7:30 a.m., he noticed someone in the back seat making furtive movements, police said.
The father told the trooper that the man in back had a gun, police said. The trooper pulled out his sidearm and promptly arrested Surafel. Police then went to the family’s home on the 6800 block of Briarcliff Drive. They arrived around 10 a.m. and, expecting an armed Tadele inside, formed a perimeter around the house. At 1 p.m. they entered the house only to discover Tadele had already left.
Tadele, however, later met with investigators and was taken into custody a little before 5 a.m. Sunday, police said. He has been charged with four counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault, two counts of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, among other charges.
While at the College Park state police barracks, Surafel attempted to hang himself using his shirt, police said. The duty officer discovered him and thwarted the suicide attempt. Surafel has been released from the hospital and charged with four counts of first-degree assault, four counts of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, among other charges.
Police said they believed a third suspect joined the two men in the escapade and are trying to determine his identity.

Ethiopian eatery comes to Hyattsville

Ethiopian natives living in Hyattsville no longer have to travel to Washington, D.C., or Montgomery County to get a taste of home with the opening of Shagga Coffee and Restaurant last summer.
Zewdi Tsegay of Burtonsville, who works near the Hyattsville restaurant, said the food is delicious and authentic.
"It's home," said Tsegay, who is Ethiopian, about why she visits Shagga. "This area needed to have an Ethiopian restaurant and [needs] more ethnic restaurants."
With their restaurant sitting just north of the coming EYA Arts District Hyattsville, Shagga owners Kelem and Adama Lemu hope it will be a good fit for the development that's set to come to the Route 1 corridor.
Also scheduled to open at Arts District Hyattsville are Busboys and Poets and a Thai restaurant.
"We didn't see any other Ethiopian restaurants in that neighborhood," said Kelem Lema. "The area needed us – or we needed it."
Her husband said they hope to benefit from the residents and businesses that will come with the redevelopment of the Hyattsville area.
"We're assuming it will create business for us. Plus, we're the only Ethiopian restaurant in the area. I'm pretty sure we're the first in P.G.," he said.
Adama Lemu said they hope to be a neighborhood restaurant where residents will come with their families.
He said they also plan to install wireless Internet for their customers in the near future.
Shagga, which Adama Lemu said is a variation of "better" or "good" in his language of Amharic, began as a coffee shop in June but the Lemas saw that their customers wanted more than Ethiopian coffee and sambusas – a traditional appetizer made of dough shells filled with vegetables and either chicken, beef or lentils. They decided to add a full restaurant and bar a few months later.
Kelem Lemu said she and her husband decided a few years ago they wanted to open an Ethiopian restaurant somewhere near their Berwyn Heights home.
"I've always loved to cook," said Kelem Lem, who cooked most nights at home. "I learned from my mother. She was a good cook. And I also learned some things at a few restaurants where I worked before."
Kelem Lemu trains all of Shagga's cooks herself, while Adama Lema, who also owns an airport transportation service, said he stays out of the kitchen.
"Sometimes I cook [at home] but my food is not like hers," he said of his wife.
Kelem Lemu said she decided to fill the menu with typical authentic Ethiopian food.
For breakfast, the restaurant offers traditional Ethiopian fare like firfir (a beef stew in red pepper sauce) and kinchu (crushed wheat with butter and chili powder) and even egg sandwiches to go with its house blend Ethiopian coffee – Shagga Harar or other coffee drinks.
"I wanted it to make sure it was like real Ethiopian cuisine," she said.
Bags of the coffee are also available for purchase. Shagga offers a $6.95 lunch special from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday that Kelem Lemu said has been very popular.
Dinner entrees include a number of chicken, lamb, beef and vegetarian dishes.
Kelem Lemu said besides sambusa appetizers, one of the most popular dishes is kitfo ($11), which is steak tartar seasoned with chili powder and herbed butter served raw, medium or well-done.
Alice Smith, who recently moved to northeast Washington, D.C., from Baltimore, said she just stumbled upon the restaurant while in search of a nice, local, eat-in restaurant last week.
"It's important for me to eat local, but there are not many restaurants that aren't franchises around here," she said.
Tsegay also said she is glad to have a little taste of home so close to her office. She said she usually gets her favorite Ethiopian dish, yebeg tibbs – a lamb dish, when she visits Shagga.
"They lived up to my expectations and then some," she said.
Shagga Coffee
and Restaurant
6040 Baltimore Ave., Hyattsville
Phone: 240-296-3030
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to
10 p.m.; Friday, 6:30 a.m. to
11 p.m.; Saturday, 7:30 a.m.
to 11 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m. to
9 p.m.

Gazetta.net
Maryland Community Newspapers Online