Seattle police arrest teens suspected of using stolen cars to hit pedestrians

Feb. 2, 2024 Updated Fri., Feb. 2, 2024 at 8:56 p.m.

By Sara Jean Green</p><p>The Seattle Times</p><p>

SEATTLE – Seattle police arrested two teenagers accused of using stolen cars to intentionally run down pedestrians on Aurora Avenue North in November, seriously injuring two people.

Officers arrested the teens, a 15-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl, Thursday in Snohomish County, according to the Police Department’s online blotter.

Police also found two stolen cars they suspect were used in the attacks.

The teens made their first court appearances Friday, when a judge found probable cause for assault and other charges and ordered them to be held in secure detention, said Casey McNerthney, a spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors are expected to file charges Tuesday.

In early December, police released disturbing cellphone footage taken from inside two cars that showed pedestrians being targeted, along with surveillance footage from nearby businesses. After the videos were made public, both victims came forward and reported suffering serious injuries, police said.

The cellphone footage shows a driver intentionally targeting a woman walking in a driveway on North 107th Street, just west of Aurora, early on Nov. 26.

Multiple people can be seen helping the woman, who was loaded into a car and driven from the scene, according to police.

In one video filmed from a back seat, someone can be heard telling the driver to “hit” the pedestrian, and then saying, “Yeah,” after they collided. At least two people are heard laughing on the footage.

Police think the second vehicle attack happened around the same time. Video footage shows the unsuspecting victim walking in a bus lane in the 9600 block of Aurora, being struck from behind and flying over the hood of the car.

In that second clip, taken from the front seat of a car, people can again be heard laughing.

The suspect vehicle didn’t stop after either collision.

At the time, police searched for witnesses and reviewed 911 call records and hospital admissions but were unable to find either victim.

Information from The Seattle Times’ archives is included in this story.

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