Trio teenagers in stolen vehicle die in violent crash
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Florida authorities said three teenagers — one 14-year-old and two 16-year-olds — stole a sport utility vehicle, sped away from officers and died in a flamy, violent crash early Sunday morning.
The Four:30 a.m. crash happened in Pinellas County, in west-central Florida.
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in a news conference Sunday morning that a fourth teenage in the SUV, who is 14, survived and is hospitalized. He said all the teenagers all had criminal histories — including one who had gotten out of jail on July 31.
Among the deceased: 16-year-olds Keontae Brown and Dejarae Thomas, and 14-year-old Jimmie Goshey.
Gualtieri said a Ford Explorer and a Chrysler Sebring were stolen from a Clearwater car dealership Thursday. Both vehicles were spotted by deputies in early Sunday morning. Deputies attempted to apprehend the drivers of the cars, but didn’t initiate pursuits of them. The sheriff’s office’s pursuit policy generally does not permit deputies to pursue stolen cars.
Deputies believed the teenagers were using the stolen cars to commit burglaries. At one point, they set up a perimeter to attempt to catch the teenagers, but a deputy spotted the vehicles outside of the perimeter.
At that point, the sheriff said, the cars were in a “cat and mouse” game with each other, accelerating and slowing down. Gualtieri said that the cars hit speeds one hundred mph or more.
The deputy that spotted them did not initiate a high-speed pursue, but the Explorer continued at about one hundred mph when it hit another vehicle, caught fire and went airborne. The Explorer also hit a billboard pole.
The driver hit by the Explorer suffered minor injuries, the sheriff said.
Officers found the Chrysler Sebring and arrested the two in that car; one is sixteen and the other Eighteen.
Gualtieri said the teenagers involved were being monitored under a program for repeat offenders.
In 2015, police in Pinellas made four hundred ninety nine felony arrests for juvenile auto theft, more than any other county in Florida going back eight years, and more than the most populous counties in America, including Los Angeles.. The Tampa Bay Times did an investigation into teenage car thefts in April of 2017; the paper found that every four days, a teenage crashes a stolen car in Pinellas County. It also found thatiIn almost every other county in Florida, most people arrested for auto theft are adults. But in Pinellas County, sixty two percent are junior than eighteen — the largest rate of juveniles arrested for grand theft auto of any sizable Florida county for at least a decade.
“This needs to stop. It’s a deadly game,” Gualtieri said Sunday. “These kids have got to stop this.”
(Copyright (c) two thousand seventeen The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Trio teenagers in stolen vehicle die in violent crash – Boston News, Weather, Sports, WHDH 7News
Three teenagers in stolen vehicle die in violent crash
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Florida authorities said three teenagers — one 14-year-old and two 16-year-olds — stole a sport utility vehicle, sped away from officers and died in a flamy, violent crash early Sunday morning.
The Four:30 a.m. crash happened in Pinellas County, in west-central Florida.
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in a news conference Sunday morning that a fourth teenage in the SUV, who is 14, survived and is hospitalized. He said all the teenagers all had criminal histories — including one who had gotten out of jail on July 31.
Among the deceased: 16-year-olds Keontae Brown and Dejarae Thomas, and 14-year-old Jimmie Goshey.
Gualtieri said a Ford Explorer and a Chrysler Sebring were stolen from a Clearwater car dealership Thursday. Both vehicles were spotted by deputies in early Sunday morning. Deputies attempted to apprehend the drivers of the cars, but didn’t initiate pursuits of them. The sheriff’s office’s pursuit policy generally does not permit deputies to pursue stolen cars.
Deputies believed the teenagers were using the stolen cars to commit burglaries. At one point, they set up a perimeter to attempt to catch the teenagers, but a deputy spotted the vehicles outside of the perimeter.
At that point, the sheriff said, the cars were in a “cat and mouse” game with each other, accelerating and slowing down. Gualtieri said that the cars hit speeds one hundred mph or more.
The deputy that spotted them did not initiate a high-speed pursue, but the Explorer continued at about one hundred mph when it hit another vehicle, caught fire and went airborne. The Explorer also hit a billboard pole.
The driver hit by the Explorer suffered minor injuries, the sheriff said.
Officers found the Chrysler Sebring and arrested the two in that car; one is sixteen and the other Legitimate.
Gualtieri said the teenagers involved were being monitored under a program for repeat offenders.
In 2015, police in Pinellas made four hundred ninety nine felony arrests for juvenile auto theft, more than any other county in Florida going back eight years, and more than the most populous counties in America, including Los Angeles.. The Tampa Bay Times did an investigation into teenage car thefts in April of 2017; the paper found that every four days, a teenage crashes a stolen car in Pinellas County. It also found thatiIn almost every other county in Florida, most people arrested for auto theft are adults. But in Pinellas County, sixty two percent are junior than eighteen — the largest rate of juveniles arrested for grand theft auto of any sizable Florida county for at least a decade.
“This needs to stop. It’s a deadly game,” Gualtieri said Sunday. “These kids have got to stop this.”
(Copyright (c) two thousand seventeen The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)