Last Friday we reported on two purse-snatch robberies, and police tracking two suspects to Westwood Village. At the time, we only confirmed one arrest, but today we learned from police that both suspects were taken into custody. They are both still in custody, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which filed felony charges against both of them today in connection with one of the robberies.
Both are 15 years old, according to the charging documents. They are charged as juveniles so we are not publishing their names; we’ll call them Suspect #1 and Suspect #2. Suspect #1 is charged with second-degree robbery and second-degree identity theft; Suspect #2 is charged with second-degree unlawful gun possession and second-degree identity theft.
Here’s what the court documents say happened: Both were in a car – driven by an as-yet-unknown third person – that pulled up while the victim was walking near 45th SW and SW Stevens. Suspect #1 got out and ran up on the victim from behind, pushing her down and pulling her purse off her while she screamed. He got back in a car described as a blue Kia or Hyundai, which sped away. Police tracked two of the suspects to Westwood Village, where they had just used one of the victim’s stolen credit cards to buy a Sony PlayStation. Photos in the court documents show them inside the store, still in the pulled-up dark hoodies seen at the time of the robbery:
Outside the store, they became aware of police’s arrival, and separated. Suspect #1 went into Target, where police caught up with him and ordered him outside. Still outside, Suspect #2 dropped the PlayStation and ran, but police caught up with him too. He told them repeatedly, “It’s in my pocket,” which is where they found a 9mm gun with a “loaded magazine in its magazine well.”
As we reported Friday, it was determined to have been stolen in Federal Way. Two of the victim’s credit cards were found on the ground outside the store.
Both suspects are scheduled for arraignment tomorrow. Checking court records, we learned both were charged in other cases earlier this year. The court files are extensive so we didn’t download everything but here’s what we’ve learned by reading 15 documents from four of the cases:
*Both suspects are local – Suspect #2 lives in West Seattle, Suspect #1 in White Center.
*Suspect #1 was charged last February with carjacking a man in Burien almost a year earlier. Then this past April, he was charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, a Kia taken from Kent. In August he was sentenced to a month of electronic home monitoring. After 8 days he cut the bracelet. He was arrested again September 12th and held for 22 days until being released three weeks ago when it was determined he had fulfilled his sentence.
*The September 12th arrest also involved Suspect #2. They were found with a stolen Kia at Bellevue Square. The car was found to contain items belonging to a woman robbed at gunpoint earlier in the day in Tukwila. Suspect #2 was charged in the stolen-car case, and has another hearing next month.
*Suspect #2 also was charged with assault in March of last year for an incident at Westwood Village in which he hit and kicked and seriously hurt a schoolmate. This case was resolved with a deferred disposition, where if a juvenile stays out of trouble for a certain amount of time, the case is closed and cleared from the record.
We will continue following this case.
ADDED THURSDAY: Both pleaded not guilty at arraignment hearings today. Suspect #1 remains in detention at the Youth Services Center, deemed a “threat to community safety.” While Suspect #2 was also described that way in court documents, he is on electronic home monitoring.
| 125 COMMENTS