A man who injured three people in a 2009 knife attack at the Embassy of Togo in Washington was sentenced Monday to time served and will likely be deported.
Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Kokou Bocco pleaded guilty in December to assault on a foreign official while armed. On Monday a judge sentenced him to the more than 15 months he has spent in jail since the attack that left three people with cuts on their hands.
Immigration officials are now holding Bocco, who is from Togo, and his lawyer said in court he will likely be deported back to the West African nation.
According to court documents, Bocco went to the embassy in Northwest Washington in to renew his passport. When he was told he would have to wait several weeks before getting a new passport he became upset and pulled out a knife with a 6-inch blade, cutting three people during a struggle with officials.
Bocco's attorney said that his client was severely emotionally disturbed when he entered the embassy in November 2009 but that his mental health has improved with medication.
"I think we're looking at a situation that could have been much worse," U.S. District Judge John Bates said before sentencing Bocco, who listened to the proceedings with the help of a French translator but did not speak.
The Embassy of Togo's second consul, Mbalembou Bato, said that after the attack the embassy added a video camera to monitor people entering the building, and officials are also considering adding a metal detector. Bato says four or five people come to the to the embassy with passport issues every day. Two of the three people injured in the attack still work at the embassy.
This item has been updated since it was first published.
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