BLACK DIAMOND, Wash. — One suspect is dead and two others are hurt after they crashed into a tree in Black Diamond following a carjacking.
At around 11:30 p.m. Monday, the King County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center took a call from a driver at Southeast 288th Street and 228th Avenue Southeast, just inside the Maple Valley city limits, who said he had just been intentionally rear-ended by another car.
He said that after the crash, someone from the car that hit him got out with a gun and carjacked his silver Hyundai, according to Black Diamond Police.
Two officers from the Black Diamond Police Department went to help King County deputies find the suspects. One of the officers was heading west in the 22000 block of Southeast 296th Street when a silver Hyundai sped past in the opposite direction. By the time the officer slowed down and turned around, the car was gone.
As the officer continued to look for the car, a deputy radioed that the stolen car may be at Lake Sawyer Grocery. Officers went to the location, but the car was not the one they were searching for.
A Black Diamond officer then returned to the location where the car was last seen. It was found off the road near the intersection of Southeast 297th and 224th Avenue Southeast, where it had crashed into a tree.
Officers and firefighters tried to save the driver’s life until medics arrived, but the victim was pronounced dead at Harborview Medical Center. The two other suspects in the car were also taken to Harborview with life-threatening injuries.
Police said all three people in the stolen car are suspected to be under 18. KCSO Sgt. Eric White said they were reported to possibly be 15 to 17 years old.
The carjacking is currently being investigated by the King County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol is investigating the fatal crash.
The car was later determined to have been stolen out of Kent.