By Matt Wendland

A 17-year-old Burien teen was arrested Saturday morning after allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol and running his car into a building.

The incident took place just after 9 a.m. on August 9th. According to witnesses at the scene, the suspect parked his late model black Lexus at the north parking lot at Burien City Hall, the King County Library and Burien Town Square Park. He left his vehicle and immediately approached a group of people waiting for their running group to arrive at the park. The suspect approached one individual in the group specifically, held out his hand, and stated, “I’ve seen you around.” The runner, who claimed to have never seen the suspect before, told the suspect that he did not know what he was talking about and asked if the suspect was trying to buy drugs from him. The suspect is said to have denied the allegations but continued to hold his hand out and repeatedly make the statement “I’ve seen you around.” When the runner continued to insist that he had no knowledge of what the suspect was after, the suspect became agitated and returned to his vehicle.

Once in his vehicle, witnesses report that the suspect sped from the parking lot and headed west through Town Square Park with his tires squealing as he navigated the curved route. As the suspect continued to accelerate through the park, his vehicle bounced off the curb and planter boxes before running over a stop sign. Finally, the suspect navigated the Lexus perfectly between two protective barriers on the corner of 5th Avenue S.W. and S.W. 151st Street before colliding with the northeast corner of the Burien Town Square development.

When police arrived on the scene, the vehicle was found resting over the remains of a concrete planter-box with a stop sign twisted around the front passenger side wheel. The driver emerged from the vehicle with only a scrape and a bloody nose from the deployed airbags. While the planter box took the blunt of the impact from the Lexus, the most visible damage to the building was the window that was shattered with the passenger side front corner of the car just inside the empty retail space.

According to officers on the scene, the suspect willingly participated in a breathalyzer test which revealed that his blood alcohol level was well over the adult legal limit for driving. The suspect was arrested with police only confirming that the suspect was being detained and not being transported to the hospital.

Police have yet to release any further information about the case. No bystanders were harmed in the accident and the vehicle is not believed to have caused any serious structural damage to Burien Town Square.