By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A man convicted in federal court in Seattle for a violent November 2022 carjacking spree during which he shot one victim will spend the next 27 years in prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said 25-year-old Maar Teng Rambang was convicted of three counts of carjacking and three counts of using a firearm during a violent crime. It was not explained why it took more than three years to bring him to trial.
Rambang’s wild rampage began when he carjacked a vehicle from a woman who was sitting in the car outside of a post office in the Seattle suburb of Kent. He ordered the woman out of the car at gunpoint, and then drove that vehicle north to Bellevue, where he parked in the Bellevue Square Mall garage, where he fired his gun while carjacking a second vehicle, from another woman. He drove that vehicle to nearby Redmond, where he attempted to rob employees at a Whole Foods Market distribution locker. He then drove the same car to Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood.
It was there that the caper went from bad to worse. He shot a man in the leg and stole his Jeep SUV, according to the Justice Department account. Rambang drove that vehicle back to Kent, where police tried to arrest him. He fled, leading police on a high-speed chase north to the city of Renton, where he was ultimately arrested.
Seattle’s KOMO quoted a statement from prosecutors which observed, “Considering that he pointed a loaded gun at multiple victims and discharged it twice – and led police on a high-speed chase driving recklessly through busy streets – Rambang is fortunate that he is not being sentenced for felony murder, vehicular assault/homicide, and the like.”
In an earlier report from January 2023, KOMO noted court documents said Rambang’s gun was a 9mm Glock 26 semi-auto pistol, which had been reported stolen in Kirkland, another suburban community north of Seattle, in 2018. According to KOMO, the slide was an original Glock component, but the frame had been replaced and did not have a serial number.
Translation: He was in possession of a stolen firearm, which he did not acquire through legitimate means.
Interestingly, KOMO viewers weighing in on the more recent report were not only unsympathetic toward Rambang, a couple wondered about his immigration status and others supported the federal prosecution because they believe in a local courtroom, he would have been dealt with far more leniently.
Gun rights activists have long argued for tougher sentences for violent armed criminals, saying it sends a message far better than passing laws which penalize honest gun owners.
