Rockville man charged with attempted murder of estranged wife

Samir Lababidi faces numerous charges after incident involving Washington County deputies

September 09, 2013|By DON AINES | dona@herald-mail.com

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A Rockville, Md., man is being held on $750,000 bond after being charged with the attempted murder of his estranged wife Saturday morning in Hagerstown, according to Washington County District Court records.

Samir Lababidi, 49, of Hungerford Drive was charged with attempted second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, first- and fourth-degree burglary, confinement of an unattended child, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and malicious destruction of property, the court records said.

A Washington County sheriff’s deputy arrived at an address on Morning Walk Drive at 12:30 a.m. to find a man, identified as Lababidi, pinning a woman against a wall in a bathtub, according to the statement of probable cause.

After the man complied with orders to lie down on the floor, the woman told deputies that Lababidi is her husband and had threatened to kill her, the charging documents said.

“He is going to kill me. He will find me and kill me,” the woman told the deputies, the documents said.

During Lababidi’s bond-review hearing Monday in District Court, Deputy State’s Attorney Joseph Michael told District Judge W. Milnor Roberts that Lababidi is a foreign national and a researcher with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Assistant Public Defender Catherine Pugh told Roberts that Lababidi has been in the United States for 12 years. She asked the judge to lower Lababidi’s bond, but Roberts kept it at $750,000.

Three butter knives were found in Lababidi’s pants pocket, the documents said.

Two other women, whom police described as “hysterical,” were found hiding in the apartment, the documents said.

The wife, identified as Ghazal Kirata, told deputies that she had left Lababidi three days earlier, because of violence in the home, the documents said.

She told investigators that she had left their 4-year-old child with Lababidi Friday night in Rockville and returned to Hagerstown, the documents said.

At 12:23 a.m. Saturday, Lababidi arrived at the Morning Walk Drive residence and began beating on the door. Kirata opened the door slightly to tell him to leave, but he forced his way in, the documents said.

She hid in the bathroom, where Lababidi forced his way in and held a knife to her face in a threatening manner, the documents said. He put the knife away as the deputy arrived, the documents said.

The couple’s child was found unattended in Lababidi’s car outside the residence, the documents said.

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