Young teens plead not guilty after allegedly brandishing weapons at Chinatown Seafair Parade

SEATTLE — Three young teens arrested for brandishing loaded guns at a parade over the weekend plead not guilty in a King County court Thursday.

Police say a 13-year-old and two14-year-olds had weapons on them at the Chinatown Seafair parade on Sunday. Two of the firearms were reported stolen and modified to be fully automatic.

All three teens were charged in juvenile court Wednesday on Second Degree Unlawful Possession of a Firearm. The 13-year-old and one of the 14-year-olds have also been charged with Unlawful Possession of a Machine Gun.

The Seattle Police Department released body camera video of their arrests that made a big scene at Sunday’s parade.

“Once I seen people running, I was getting my kids and I was running,” said a woman who was at the parade.

KIRO 7 spoke with a witness who wanted to remain anonymous.

She says the crowd scrambled when police came through around 7 p.m. Sunday.

“There was babies that were five that were running for their lives, running alongside of me it was it was horrible. It’s horrible,” she explained.

She was about to walk in the parade, when she says she immediately noticed the three teens acting strange.

“As we’re lined up, there are three kids with hoodies and hands in their pockets.”,” she added. “It was scary to see these young kids standing with their hoodies on. Staring and kinda looking at the crowd.”

With kids and families in mind, her gut feeling was to call police.

“I didn’t see their weapons, but I just felt something as a mom that made me want to react in a way to call those that are to protect and serve,” she explained.

Officers found three loaded guns. Two of them modified to be fully automatic, described as machine guns.

“This was a person that had a war weapon a whole war weapon at a parade that is supposed to be with love and light and happiness and it was just stolen,” she said.

One of the 14-year-olds was released to home monitoring, while the other 13-year-old and 14-year-old remain at the King County Juvenile Detention center.

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