Friday, November 30, 2007
Teens in hot car held after chase
BB gun waved at cyclists, stop signs run in flight
By Scott J. Croteau TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
[email protected]
WORCESTER— A 13-year-old city boy allegedly drove a stolen car with a couple of his underage buddies inside and led police on a car chase that went through stop signs and the wrong way on a one-way street Wednesday night after
waving a BB gun at a couple of bicycle riders.
Toward the end of the chase, the driver jumped out of the moving car, leaving it to continue along with his two friends still inside until it crashed into a fence near Kilby and Beacon streets.
All three teens were corralled by members of the gang unit who were following the car after the
reported gun incident.
Police received a call around 9 p.m. Wednesday from a man who said a car full of teenagers
waved what looked like a black and silver handgun at him while he and a friend rode their bicycles near Murray Avenue and Preston Street, police spokesman Sgt. Kerry F. Hazelhurst said.
Officers radioed a “be on the look-out” to other officers about the gold Mazda 626 with the youths inside.
Within minutes,
gang unit members Neftali Batista, James Carmody, Thomas B. Duffy and Carmelo Oquendo spotted the car near Newbury Street.
The officers — all on patrol together in the same vehicle — saw the car driving fast on Congress Street, then turn onto Crown Street. At that point, the officers turned on the vehicle’s flashing lights and tried to stop the car, Sgt. Hazelhurst said.
But the car didn’t stop and continued along several city streets, blowing through several stop signs, the sergeant said. At one point, the driver took the car the wrong way on the one-way street, police said.
“We were lucky no one was hurt,” Sgt. Hazelhurst said.
Near Beacon and Kilby streets, the 13-year-old allegedly bailed out of the moving car. The car continued straight until it hit a fence.
Two other teenagers jumped out of the car and tried to run off, but all three teens were caught by the
gang unit members. The teens are all from the city.
The officers saw what
looked like a handgun in the back seat, but found it was a
BB gun. The car had been reported stolen in the city earlier in the week.
All three teens — two 13-year-olds and one 16-year-old —
were charged with receiving stolen property worth more than $250, malicious destruction of property over $250 and
the new city ordinance that bans juvenile possession of BB guns.
The 13-year-old driver was also charged with multiple driving offenses. All three will appear in Juvenile Court on the charges.
Sgt. Hazelhurst said
the bicyclist didn’t know the gun wasn’t real.
“The victim in this case felt the gun was real and was in fear,” he said. “With the
nature of the call involving a gun, we had to treat this very seriously. This goes to show you
the dangers of juveniles having BB guns.”
The situation could have been dangerous especially if one of the teens ran out of the car with the
BB gun in hand, the sergeant added.
“If one of the youths ran out of the car with the BB gun, which looked real, the officers had no way of determining its authenticity,” Sgt. Hazelhurst said. “It could have been a potentially dangerous situation putting the youths and officers in danger.”
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