A former D.C. firefighter pleaded guilty to raping his two young daughters at gunpoint, according to Prince George’s County prosecutors.
The Examiner is not publishing the name of the 38-year-old Temple Hills man in order to protect the identity of the daughters.
“One can hardly imagine a crime more horrible than physically and emotionally abusing and sexually violating one’s own children,” said State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey in a statement Friday. “this was a devastating case.”
Circuit Court Judge Herman Dawson on Monday sentenced the defendant to life in prison, suspending all but 25 years after the man pleaded to guilty to first and second degree rape on Monday. The man was also sentenced to five years of supervised probation upon his released from prison.
The defendant was indicted last year on 17 counts and was scheduled to go to trial this week, according to court documents.
Authorities said the man, a 17-year veteran of the D.C. fire department, began abusing his oldest daughter in 1996 when she was 6, and his youngest daughter in 2006 when she was 9.
The man was arrested last spring after police were tipped by family members.
Ivey commended the victims and the family for coming forward to report the assaults, which he said allowed prosecutors and police to, “bring a righteous end to this shocking crime.”
He repeatedly abused the girls in his home during that time and used a handgun during the rape, authorities said.
The girls were 17 and 11 years old when the crime was revealed.
D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesman said the department moved to terminate the firefighter as soon as the agency learned of the charges. He is no longer with the department.
“We believe our fighters should be held to a higher ethical and moral standards,” said Battalion Fire Chief Kenneth Crosswhite.
Crosswhite was unable to determine when the man was fired or where he worked late Friday.
