ROCKVILLE, Md. (WJLA) – A former Montgomery College student is accused of storming an apartment, attacking a mother and then trying to kidnap a 7-month-old girl. Police say the man blamed his midday escapade on bad drugs.
Paul Mounombi, 22, is now facing a handful of criminal charges, including home invasion, destruction of property, assault and disorderly conduct.
Around 2 p.m. on March 25, Mounombi reportedly stripped down in his apartment, destroyed furniture and then sprinted into the great outdoors. Leaving nothing to the imagination, the Gabon native embarked on a naked rampage that weaved through the Halpine View Apartments along the 12800 block of Twinbrook Parkway.
According to police, the 22-year-old smashed air conditioning units with dumbbells, and then used a lawn chair to shatter his neighbor's ground-floor apartment window. Upon crawling inside, still buck naked, Mounombi reportedly tried kidnapping a baby girl. Police say he then punched and choked the infant's mother, while shouting, "Call me your king!" and "Bow to me!" Mounombi also turned on the victims' kitchen stove burners and oven broiler.
Officers responding to a handful of 911 calls found Mounombi pacing and panting in a nearby forest. The mother and infant had safely escaped to a neighbor's home. Mounombi's female roommate told cops her friend was acting out simply because he had recently taken some "bad weed."
"That must have been some really bad weed! I mean marijuana usually doesn't promote that kind of response," Halpine View resident Dan Jones remarked. "I wouldn't believe that if I were the police. I think there was something else going on."
Chaitanya Dubey, his wife and two young children live directly two floors below Mounombi's days-old apartment. Management evicted him following his arrest.
"Wow! If he's taking bad weed then it's bad for him. If he's running around naked then that's bad for the community. As for entering a house, that goes to a very different level of insanity," Dubey stated.
On Friday, Mounombi's roommate contacted ABC 7 News, vouching for her friend. She described Mounombi as an upstanding citizen and suggested he shouldn't be held accountable for his actions because he was under the influence of drugs.
The mother and daughter have since moved from their ground-floor apartment to a new neighborhood, concerned that such a random and terrifying crime could have happened again.
"I've got a 4-year-old daughter and a pregnant wife. If he had broken into our home, I don't know what would have happened," Jones concluded. "I'm just glad no one was hurt."
