12-year-old charged with felony after late night joyride
Published 1:30 am Saturday, August 25, 2018
MILL CREEK — A middle-of-the-night joyride has landed a 12-year-old boy in court. It wasn’t the first time he had driven off with a vehicle without permission or a driver’s license, according to a police report.
The Snohomish County prosecutor’s office filed a felony charge Monday against the boy, accusing him of stealing a car. He was pulled over just before 2 a.m. July 20 by a Mill Creek police officer.
The officer was directing traffic around a construction site near the intersection of 164th Street SE and Ninth Avenue SE. He noticed a black Ford Fusion when the car approached without its headlights on.
The officer said he signaled for the driver to stop. He then motioned for the boy to turn on the headlights. That didn’t happen.
The officer moved toward the driver’s window, and the boy accelerated quickly turning right onto Ninth, according to court papers.
The officer followed the tween who then turned down a dead-end street.
The boy reportedly initially refused to give the officer his name or date of birth. After telling the officer he had a pocket knife, the boy was handcuffed. The officer contacted the kid’s father, who arrived with his daughter to the scene.
The sister said her brother had taken the car without permission after she left the keys on the counter when she went to bed. She told the officer her mother owned the car, which the officer confirmed.
The father said the boy was getting into a lot of trouble lately and nothing he tried as a parent was working. He recently moved from Everett to get the family away from gangs. He requested the officer to take his son into custody.
However, the circumstances didn’t meet the requirements for arrest at the time, so the officer released the boy to his father.
Court papers list addresses for the boy in Everett and Lynnwood. The Daily Herald generally does not name defendants in juvenile court.
Lizz Giordano: 425-374-4165; egiordano@herald net.com. Twitter: @lizzgior.
