Officers inspect the two vehicles in today's chase, the red Impreza driven by the 11-year-old suspect and the police cruiser. The undercover detective in the middle is blocked out by a cowboy hat to conceal his identity.
At 3:45 p.m. this afternoon an undercover detective with the SeaTac Police Department noticed something wrong with a red Subaru as it passed him along Military Road: the driver was too small to see over the steering wheel.
Within six minutes of this sighting, and two damaged motor vehicles later, detectives would learn that this mini “Mad Max” was in fact an 11-year-old boy.
Backing up, just minutes before the detective spotted him, the young suspect had been walking along Military Road and explained to officers that he had desperately needed a ride somewhere (it is still unclear where he was going). As he was walking along he spotted a red Subaru Impreza parked on the side of the road.
The boy inspected the vehicle and managed to locate a hide-a-key in the under carriage.
Hopping in the car he made his way down the road in the residential area at speeds in excess of 45 miles per hour. Because he was too small to see over the front of the car the boy was jamming on the gas and pulling himself up by the steering wheel in order to get a view of the road.
At about 154th and Military Road the undercover detective spotted the car and began following it. Calling for back-up the detective followed close behind until SeaTac Police service vehicles came on the scene and took up the chase.
After a few attempts to get the boy to pull over the officers initiated a PIT maneuver (Precision Immobilization Technique) near 167th to stop the car. The boy was unharmed but both the Impreza and police vehicle sustained serious damage.
On Twitter the King County Sheriff’s Office posted an update on the chase at 4:54 p.m. stating “the car has been returned to the owner, the boy has been turned over to his mother, thankfully no one was hurt”.
Because of the suspect’s age he could not be arrested and taken to jail, only turned over to his parents. It is also unclear whether any charges will be forthcoming or not. For the moment the damage to the vehicles will be an insurance shuffle between the owner of the Subaru and the suspect’s mother.
