Matthew M. Graves U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia
Tyree Eugene McCombs, a 29-year-old resident of Washington D.C., has been sentenced to 228 months in federal prison for his involvement in multiple violent crimes across Virginia and Maryland. The U.S. District Court handed down the sentence for McCombs' participation in incidents of stalking, armed robbery, and kidnapping that occurred in September and November 2022.
The sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., alongside FBI Special Agent Sean Ryan from the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division. McCombs entered a guilty plea on August 14, 2024, before Judge Amy Berman Jackson. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by robbery for the September offense and one count of kidnapping for the November incident. In addition to his prison term, McCombs will serve five years of supervised release.
Court documents revealed that McCombs orchestrated two separate criminal operations targeting women at gunpoint during these months. He was identified as a leader in both instances, actively participating in stalking victims, holding them at gunpoint, physically assaulting them, and demanding ransom payments.
The first incident took place on September 3, 2022. Two victims were ambushed upon returning to their apartment building in Alexandria after attending a family gathering in Maryland. McCombs had placed a GPS tracking device inside their vehicle without their knowledge. Along with three accomplices, he robbed the victims of valuable items including watches worth $120,000 and jewelry valued at $63,500.
During this crime spree, McCombs forced the victims into their apartment where they were assaulted but managed to escape when an alarm was triggered. The perpetrators fled using stolen vehicles including the victim's Mercedes which was later found abandoned.
In another attack on November 7, 2022, McCombs led an abduction involving a 25-year-old woman in Maryland while he was already under supervised release for a previous conviction. Using GPS data from his monitor worn due to prior legal issues, authorities tracked his movements as he stalked the victim before abducting her with an accomplice.
The victim endured several hours of captivity during which she was robbed and threatened before making a daring escape from the moving vehicle despite being shot twice by her captors who fired multiple rounds at her.
Law enforcement quickly apprehended McCombs based on GPS evidence shortly after this incident unfolded.
The investigation into these crimes involved cooperation between various law enforcement agencies including FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force along with police departments from Fairfax County; Howard County; and Metropolitan Police Department contributing significantly towards bringing this case forward successfully prosecuted by Assistant U.S Attorneys Meredith Mayer-Dempsey & Charles R Jones.
