Seattle teens try to outdrive police and end up sideways in embankment

WEST SEATTLE, Wash. — Three Seattle teenagers were caught after they tried to outdrive police officers in a stolen car and crashed, ending up in an embankment next to an apartment building Wednesday night, the Seattle Police Department reported.

“I suddenly heard a succession of really loud, smashing, crunching sounds, which to me sounded like five car accidents one after the other — bam, bam, bam, bam,” Aimee Muul, who lives in the apartment complex, said. “I saw probably like 15 police officers just around this whole area, and they started yelling down into there, ‘Seattle police, get out of the vehicle.’”

Seattle police responded to a 911 call by a man who was afraid his business would be targeted when he saw three people wearing ski masks outside his store in the Roxhill neighborhood in West Seattle.

“While all of this is happening, I’m on the phone with 911 because, as I mentioned, it has happened one too many times. So I’m just extra cautious and I reported suspicious activity,” Rishab Narula, the gas station owner, said.

Officers got there just after 9 p.m. in the 8800 block of 35th Avenue Southwest and spoke with the 25-year-old employee. He told the officers that he locked the doors to his business and that the car with suspicious masked people left, heading northbound on 35th Avenue Southwest.

Officers later found the car, which had been stolen at gunpoint during a carjacking, and attempted to detain it but the person drove away.

After getting authorization to pursue, police followed the teenagers until they collided with a fence, causing the car to fall down an embankment, and strike the outside of an apartment building.

Seattle Fire Department personnel came and gave medical care for non-life-threatening injuries caused by the collision.

Police contacted the registered owner of the stolen car. The owner reported Tuesday evening that his car and phone were taken at gunpoint in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.

The 25-year-old man told officers he was in his driver’s seat when an unknown man armed with a gun approached his vehicle. Two other men then sat down in the owner’s car, a white 2010 Toyota Corolla with a missing lower front grill, and drove off in an unknown direction. The armed man then drove off with a fourth man in a black sport utility vehicle.

It is unknown if the men in the Beacon Hill carjacking were involved in the Wednesday night collision. However, all three men found in the stolen vehicle were taken into custody.

“With the incident, the collision that happened Wednesday night, we don’t know that the three male suspects are related to that carjacking that occurred Tuesday evening in Beacon Hill. But those three suspects were actually taken into custody by officers and they did locate a realistic looking BB gun in the car,” Judinna Guypan, of SPD, said.

The 15-year-old was arrested for possession of a stolen vehicle and eluding. He was later booked into the King County Youth Services Center after being medically cleared at Harborview Medical Center.

The other two, a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old, were released from police custody to their legal guardians.

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