Montgomery County Police were called to a hospital on Tuesday after an underage teen girl reported a rape, and investigators say an Empower rideshare driver took her to a parking lot in Silver Spring where the alleged assault occurred. The driver, Abdoulaye Dia of Lanham, Maryland, was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree rape, kidnapping, second-degree assault and third-degree sex offense. The case lays out a familiar chain of institutional failure: a platform, a police response, and federal authorities all moving after the harm was already done.
Who Paid the Price
The teen did. She told police she was raped by an Empower rideshare driver, according to the account released by authorities. That report sent Montgomery County Police to the hospital, where the complaint surfaced. Investigators then identified Dia through information obtained from the rideshare app. The system that promised convenience and mobility became the route through which the alleged violence happened.
Dia is a citizen of Guinea, the Department of Homeland Security said. DHS also said he entered the United States illegally through Arizona in December 2023 and was released by the Biden administration. Those details came after the alleged assault, after the arrest, after the damage. The state’s paperwork and border machinery did not protect the teen in the moment that mattered.
What the Company Says It Did
Empower said all its drivers undergo background, sex offender, motor vehicle and Social Security traces, and that they are vetted against the same global watchlist used by Uber and Lyft through the same screening provider. The company said, “The background check, sex offender check, driving record check, social security trace, and global watchlist search on this customer were conducted on July 16, 2026 and did not reveal any incidents.”
That’s the language of managed risk, the kind corporate platforms use to dress up control as safety. The company also said Montgomery County Police reached out to it and that it immediately provided all information requested. The screening happened on July 16, 2026, and the arrest came later, on Wednesday. The checks didn’t stop the alleged assault. They never do what the brochures promise.
The Paper Trail After the Harm
A DHS spokesperson said Dia was previously arrested June 10 in New York City for sexual abuse by forcible compulsion, forcible touching of the sexual/intimate parts of another person, injuring a child less than 17 and sexual abuse without consent. That arrest history surfaced only after the Maryland case. The apparatus noticed, documented, and filed, but the teen still ended up in a parking lot in Silver Spring with a man now charged with rape and kidnapping.
Fox News said it reached out to Empower for comment. The company’s statement and the federal account sit side by side, each one trying to manage the fallout after the fact. One points to background checks. The other points to prior arrests and immigration status. Neither changes the basic fact that a teenage passenger reported rape and police had to respond after the violence had already happened.
The case shows how much faith gets poured into platforms, screening vendors, and federal enforcement, while ordinary people are left to absorb the consequences when those systems fail. The rideshare app identified the driver. Police made the arrest. DHS supplied the history. None of that gave the teen what she needed when she got into the car.