Two teenagers with shaky stories are being investigated for robbery after being pulled over in a stolen SUV early Tuesday morning by some alert East Precinct officers.
According to the SPD brief on the incident, below, officers spotted the vehicle traveling Broadway without its headlights on around 2 AM. After being stopped, police say one of the two 15-year-olds offered an unlikely alias but couldn’t produce a driver’s license and couldn’t recall his birthdate or middle name. The officers also spotted an airgun and a pistol on the floor of the vehicle.
Police took the driver into custody and he was booked into the Youth Service Center for auto theft and unlawful possession of a firearm. The passenger was released to family.
The full brief from SPD is below.
Two teens caught with a gun in a stolen SUV are now under investigation for robbery after police spotted them driving through Capitol Hill early this morning without any headlights.
Officers Matt Blackburn and Dan Auderer were on patrol on Broadway around 2 AM when they spotted a Toyota 4Runner driving down the street with their headlights off. When officers pulled the car over at 11th Avenue and Thomas Street, they found two 15-year-old teens inside.
The driver told officers he didn’t have his license with him, but, summoning his inner Minaj, informed police his name was “XXX XXXX” However, he couldn’t recall his birthday, or whether he had a middle name. Officers soon discovered the teen’s real name.
While speaking with the two teens in the SUV, officers spotted a pair of guns on the floor of the car. One handgun had its serial number scratched off. The other firearm turned out to be a BB gun. Police also discovered the car the two suspects had been driving was stolen.
Officers Blackburn and Auderer arrested the teens, and booked the driver into the Youth Service Center for auto theft and unlawful possession of a firearm. They released the passenger to a family member.
Police are also investigating whether the two suspects may have robbed a man for his cash and cellphone an hour earlier, around 1 AM, near 17th Avenue and S. Atlantic Street on Beacon Hill.
Great work, by alert SPD officers!
2AM. Stolen vehicle. Occupied by two fifteen-year olds with two handguns.
My question: what do the protesters of the new juvenile facility suggest be done with these two, and others like them? Get them a suite at the Four Seasons?
I’d much rather see these 2 boys be assigned a hefty amount of community service, than see them locked away. But I guess some people would rather see them imprisoned and have any shot at a decent life taken away from them?
Three questions: 1) How do you feel about crime victims? (Do they rate in your world view at all) 2) Are you aware the list of bookable offenses that result in youth being taken to the detention center is all serious stuff. You don’t get sent there for shoplifting. 3) Are you at all aware of the services and volunteers made available to youth at the detention center with the goal of helping them avoid the “poor school to prison pipeline.”?
1) How does the punishment for these youths have any bearing on the victims of this crime? The perpetrators were apprehended by police, presumably, the SUV will be returned to it’s owners.
2+3) Something obviously went wrong in the lives of these two boys for them to be in this situation, that much I agree with. My question is, WHY should they have to go to youth prison in order for them to get access to these “services and volunteers”?
If them being imprisoned means I still have my car, i’m not shot in the head, and I can stroll through Capitol Hill without worry, then YES, take away their shot at a decent life. After all, nobody made the decisions for them. At what point do we begin to take responsibility for our own actions?
Because clearly their parents have enough influence on them to make good choices and would ensure that the commitment to service is completed. If you are 15 and packing heat in a stolen car you get what is coing to you, which sadly is a slap on the wrist in this town.
They’re useful idiots for the elite class who are served very nicely by anarcho-tyranny.
Say what?
Speaking of useful idiot….
We don’t know the race of these suspects nor should it matter. But we also see that there are some who would conclude that if they happen to be minorities, that they are being targeted and discriminated against. I don’t care about the race of a kid or adult pulled over with an illegal gun in a stolen car. They need to be arrested and prosecuted.
The crimes committed by these kids won’t land them in prison for this offense, absent other factors like priors (though I am not an expert in the criminal justice system).
They exercised bad choices and I don’t care about their circumstances when it comes to holding them to account.
Agreed 100%
Good job officers!!
Good. Hope that they get punished to the fullest extent of the law if they are found guilty.