LAKEWOOD – The mother of the 9-year-old boy who took two flights in an attempt to run away to Dallas said she was stunned but proud to hear about her son’s actions, according to a TV interview that was scheduled to air Wednesday night.
“He just showed me that, Mom, ‘I’m going to achieve anything I want to do. I’m going to just do it.’ So he did it, from driving a car to getting on an airplane,” Sakinah Booker said on the syndicated TV show “Inside Edition.”
In the interview, her son, Semaj, describes riding a bus to the airport and using a man’s name he overheard on a Seattle-Tacoma International Airport loudspeaker page to get a boarding pass from Southwest Airlines, according to a press release issued Tuesday by the program.
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Beth Harbin said she hadn’t heard about Semaj obtaining a passenger’s name from a loudspeaker page.
Booker’s lawyer, Brett Purtzer, said the mother was considering a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines.
The boy tried to run away to Dallas on Jan. 15 because he disliked Washington and wanted to be with his grandfather. After being stopped by airline employees in San Antonio and held in a home for runaways in Bexar County, Texas, the boy is back with his mother.
He faces charges in connection with a high-speed chase in a stolen car on Highway 512 the day before his airline escapade.
The boy is accused of stealing a 1986 Acura from his neighbor in Lakewood and leading police on a chase at speeds of up to 80 mph, according to charging documents.
Afterward, police tried to place the boy at Remann Hall juvenile jail in Tacoma and at a Child Protective Services facility, but both places turned him down because of his age, according to Lakewood police. He was returned to his mother that night.
“We do intend to proceed with the criminal charges that have been filed related to the incident on Jan. 14,” said Fred Wist, chief prosecutor for Pierce County’s juvenile division.
On Jan. 15, the fourth-grader managed to talk his way onto two flights, from Seattle to Phoenix and then to San Antonio.
Southwest Airlines said Semaj presented himself as a 12-year-old, and therefore would not have been listed as an unaccompanied minor. He requested a boarding pass, saying his mother was already in the boarding area.
Because he’s younger than 18, he didn’t have to show identification to get through airport security.
The boy was finally stopped by Southwest Airlines employees at San Antonio International Airport while trying to board a flight to Dallas because he did not have information that matched a reservation, officials said.
Southwest Airlines is still investigating what happened, Harbin said.
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