14-year-old girl seriously hurt after armed carjacking near Burien

BURIEN, Wash. — An armed carjacking led to a crash in a neighborhood near Burien Wednesday, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.

A group of teenagers with a gun carjacked a man in White Center around 12:50 p.m. and then took off in the car, according to KCSO Captain Tim Meyer.

The man was uninjured.

Deputies say they did not chase the car, but later spotted it in Burien. When they started following the stolen car, the teens sped off. Again, Meyer says deputies did not pursue the vehicle, but the teens crashed shortly after.

A 14-year-old girl was pinned in the car when it crashed near the south end of the Rainier Golf and Country Club near S. 118th Street and Glendale Way S, where the road curves. The car plowed through a fence and landed upside down in a neighbor’s yard.

“I was working from home so I heard a loud bang,” said Cara Griswold, who lives nearby. She said she ran over, saw the car smoking, and called 911. “The car flipped over, and a girl was trying to crawl out, she had some blood. Three other guys had already exited the vehicle and when they realized how badly she was hurt, they ran,” Griswold said.

The girl was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition. On Thursday, her condition had improved to serious.

“She definitely had some head injury. Pretty severe-looking from what I could tell,” Griswold said.

Although the girl was in the car when it crashed, investigators say it is unclear if the girl was involved in the initial carjacking. Meyer said the carjacking victim reported three males who carjacked him.

“It’s s a scene with many moving parts. We have the initial location where the carjacking occurred, this collision that’s now a serious investigation given the injuries, and three people in custody. So very chaotic scene,” Meyer said.

The three teens who ran away after the crash caused two nearby schools to be locked down for a short time. Deputies brought out K-9 units as well. All three teen boys were quickly taken into custody. The sheriff’s office also recovered a gun that one of the teens threw into a bush.

Deputies noted the teens were all wearing ski masks when they were apprehended.

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