JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Less than a week after a police officer used a PIT maneuver to stop two people in an SUV that was reported stolen during a carjacking, News4JAX has learned the suspects were teenage boys.
According to an arrest report, Jacksonville police were called to the intersection of Detroit Street and Commonwealth Avenue in reference to an armed carjacking on July 6.
The victim told officers two people later identified as a 16-year-old and 17-year-old carjacked him at gunpoint on Ocean Street, across from Springfield Park. The victim said he was flagged down by one of the teens. He told police that after he stopped, another teen approached him.
The report did state that the victim was driven to the front of an abandoned home on Dixon Street where he was forced out of his Hyundai SUV before the suspects drove off. According to police, the victim walked to the corner of Detroit Street and Commonwealth Avenue where someone allowed him to use their cell phone to call 911.
A BOLO was issued for a stolen Hyundai SUV with temporary tags. Three hours after the BOLO went out, a patrol officer located the stolen SUV traveling Northwest on Powers Avenue. According to the report, after the officer confirmed the tags and the description of the two suspects in the SUV, he got behind the suspects without turning on emergency lights and his siren. He noted in the report that the SUV began traveling erratically and changing lanes.
Once the officer confirmed other officers were in the area, he followed the suspects onto Philips Highway and activated his siren and emergency lights. The officer said the suspects began to speed away so he used a pit maneuver on the SUV that caused the SUV to crash into a grassy median and roll over.
Both teens were removed from the wreckage at gunpoint. One was taken to the hospital to be treated for minor cuts. They were both charged with armed carjacking. JSO Lt. Rickie Valentine told News4JAX he was pleased that no one was seriously injured given what they knew about the suspects.
“It is a very good outcome. At the beginning of this, not only was it a carjacking but an armed carjacking. So, we were informed that the occupants of the vehicle were possibly armed,” said Valentine.
Police told News4JAX they located a handgun in the overturned SUV and they believe that gun was used during the carjacking.