The arrest of a 12-year-old who police say attacked a woman with a screwdriver in a Central District robbery is being closely watched as an example of the challenges for the area’s justice system when it comes to juvenile crime.
The King County Prosecutor’s office says a judge found probable cause to hold the boy in a hearing Wednesday. The office expects to make a charging decision in the case Thursday.
“While is seems clear that this 12-year-old needs appropriate help, Robbery in the First Degree – a felony crime that involves a deadly weapon or a bodily injury – is not the kind of case that King County prosecutors send to diversion; cases like this one go before a judge with input from juvenile probation counselors,” a statement on the case to media reads.
The prosecutor’s office also clarified that state law requires that first degree robbery cases “must stay in juvenile court when a respondent is 12 years old.”
“Prosecutors across Washington State do not have the ability to move such a case to adult court, regardless of case circumstances, and judges do not have the ability under the law to move a 12-year-old’s first-degree robbery case to adult court,” according to the statement.
According to police, responded to the reported robbery around 7 PM Saturday at 23rd Ave and S Jackson and found the injured 43-year-old victim.
“Police determined that a juvenile suspect wearing a ‘hot pink ski mask’ had just robbed the woman at the Amazon Fresh store,” the SPD report reads:
According to the police report, the suspect “attacked the victim, hitting her multiple times in the face with his hands. He then brandished a screwdriver and poked at the victim in the face striking her on her left cheek.” After stealing her property, the suspect rifled through it in the parking garage. He then returned to the victim and assaulted her again before running off. When police found the suspect, he fled from them on foot.
SPD says officers were able to identify the suspect and where he lived “based on his age, unique clothing description, and previous interactions with law enforcement.”
Police went to his family’s house and got a search warrant for his arrest, taking the 12-year-old into custody without incident. A screwdriver was also taken into evidence.
The suspect was booked into juvenile detention at 12th Ave’s Judge Patricia H. Clark Children & Family Justice Center.
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