Philadelphia. – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Naseem Rashidi Clouden, 23, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on March 13 by United States District Court Judge Mark A. Kearney to 121 months in prison and five years of supervised release for one count of carjacking and one count of carrying and using a firearm during, and in relation to, the commission of a crime of violence.
Clouden was indicted on those violations in January of 2023. He pleaded guilty in November of 2024, admitting to carjacking a woman who was sitting in her mother’s Toyota Camry at approximately 8 p.m. on November 3, 2022, in Philadelphia. As part of his plea, the defendant also admitted that a firearm was used during and in relation to the armed carjacking.
According to the publicly filed documents in this case, the victim reported that while sitting in her mother’s vehicle in the West Oak Lane section of Philadelphia, six men including the defendant approached the vehicle on foot. The defendant and his accomplices pulled on the door handles of the car and ordered the victim out of the vehicle and two of the men pointed guns at her. When she did not move fast enough, one of the men yelled “shoot her” and the victim immediately complied and got out of the car. Four offenders then jumped into the vehicle and drove away.
The victim immediately called the police, and two officers enroute to the scene observed the victim’s mother’s vehicle. The officers pursued the vehicle until it stopped on the 6200 block of Old York Road and three men fled from the vehicle on foot. The officers then chased after the men, recovered a firearm on the block, and within a short time, located the defendant hiding under a van. The defendant was taken into custody and identified as one of the persons who committed the carjacking.
“Naseem Clouden terrorized our city at gunpoint. These offenses are a priority for my office and our partners on Philadelphia Carjacking Task Force,” said U.S. Attorney Metcalf. “We simply won’t stand for these senseless acts of violence. The crime of federal carjacking brings significant prison time, as Clouden’s sentence shows: a decade in prison for a crime that took just moments to commit.”
“‘Shoot her!’ a carjacker yelled, as the victim scrambled to save her own life. Armed carjacking is a brutal, dangerous crime, and thanks to the responding police officers, Naseem Rashidi Clouden has been convicted and sentenced to more than a decade in federal prison for it,” said Eric DeGree, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Philadelphia Field Division. “Together with our Carjacking Task Force partners we are applying ATF’s unique forensic and investigative tools to stop criminals like this from terrorizing our neighborhoods.”
“This latest sentencing of a carjacker is a testament to the continued commitment of the Philadelphia Police Department and our law enforcement partners to stem the tide of violent crime in our city,” said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel. “Carjacking endangers the safety and peace of mind of our residents, and we will not tolerate it. Through our continued collaboration with federal agencies, we will ensure those who commit these crimes are pursued, prosecuted, and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Philadelphia Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lauren Stram.
