U.S. marshals are looking for a man accused of breaking into and ransacking a family’s home in Gaitherburg, and authorities are asking the public to help find him before someone gets hurt.
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Thirty-one-year-old Jermaine Lewis is wanted out of Montgomery County on first-degree burglary charge. Police said Lewis forced his way inside a home on Irish Court on July 5, trashed the residence and stole thousands of dollars’ worth of property.
The family was away on vacation when the burglary occurred, so nobody was hurt, said Matt Burke, supervisory inspector for the U.S. Marshals Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force.
Lewis has a history of arrests on weapons, money laundering and drug charges, Burke noted.
“This crime could have ended very differently,” Burke said. “Any criminal that carries weapons and feels comfortable enough to invade another person’s home needs to be taken off the street.”
Burglaries are not always the agency’s priority cases because they don’t usually involve violence or confrontations with the victims, Burke said.
But they leave victims emotionally injured and feeling vulnerable and unsafe in their own homes.
Lewis is listed as being 5 feet 11 inches and 175 pounds.
Lewis has lived on Nicholson Street Northeast and Farragut Street Northwest in the District, but he could be anywhere in the Washington area.
Anyone with information on Lewis should call the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force at 301-489-1717.
Since the weekly “Most Wanted” feature began three years ago, readers of The Washington Examiner have helped police capture 33 fugitives, including convicted murderers, kidnappers, sex offenders and con artists.
The Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force, run by the U.S. Marshals Service, is composed of 30 federal, state and local agencies from Baltimore to Norfolk. The unit has captured more than 33,000 wanted fugitives since its creation in 2004.
