A 15-year-old Redlands resident who is suspected of engaging in a spree of robberies and burglaries in Los Angeles and San Diego counties was taken into custody by Redlands police on February 9.
The youth was taken into custody after he fled from officers in a stolen vehicle in an apparent effort to avoid being arrested. In his headlong pursuit to avoid capture, he crashed and wrecked the car he was in, collided with two others and injured himself and two others.
Because of his age, the miscreant’s name is not being released. Despite his youth, he has a demonstrated talent for interrupting the lives of others in ways that are generally not considered pleasant.
The youth’s developed mode of operation seems to involve engaging in strongarm and armed robberies or burglaries in places well removed from where he lives, a sophistication of his criminality rather uncharacteristic of sociopaths his age.
It appears that in this case, despite not having a driver license, he stole a Kia in Redlands and then used it to drive first to San Diego, where he engaged in an armed robbery and then drove to East Los Angeles, where he again robbed a victim at gunpoint. He drove eastward to West Covina, abandoning the car there. He then sole a 2017 Hyundai Elantra, which he drove back to Redlands.
Between the time he had stolen the second car and his arrival in Redlands, however, the vehicle had been reported stolen, with its description and license plate numbers/characters having been disseminated to multiple Southern California law enforcement agencies.
A Redlands Police patrolmen spotted the car, with the suspect in it, in the parking lot of the Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant in the 1400 block of West Lugonia Avenue on Sunday, February 9.
When the patrol car approached the Hyundai, the driver hastily pulled away, according to a police report of the incident. A chase was then on, with the driver accelerating and taking evasive action. The car was consistently exceeding 55 miles an hour and reached a speed exceeding 70 miles per hour during the pursuit.
While moving at a high rate of speed, the Hyundai ran a red light at the intersection of Fern Avenue and Cajon Street, hitting two vehicles and then a curb, rolling over multiple times.
The suspect was injured but not critically. He was taken into custody. The drivers of the other vehicles sustain light to medium injuries.