Renton police have arrested a 14-year-old and 16-year-old following a series of incidents including threats with a firearm, a theft of a marijuana store, and a helicopter chase of a stolen vehicle.<\/p>\n
Police have four suspects in total in the series of incidents, including an additional 14-year-old and 15-year-old suspect, according to the department. The teenage suspects serve as members of the Kia Boys, a TikTok trend of vehicle thefts targeting vulnerable Hyundais and Kia models.<\/p>\n
According to the department, the series of incidents on March 26 started in Renton and ended at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila after a King County Sheriff’s Office helicopter located the teenagers’ stolen red Hyundai and recorded 17 minutes of video as the driver sped from Renton to Tukwila.<\/p>\n
According to the department, officers responded after receiving a call from an 8-year-old boy and 10-year-old boy reporting a passenger in a red sedan threatened them with a firearm near Edmonds Avenue Northeast and Ferndale Avenue Northeast in Renton.<\/p>\n
Officers learned that at 2:20 p.m. that day, a Renton resident reported a 2016 red Hyundai Sonata as stolen. At 3:15 p.m., police received reports of a red sedan driving “erratically” along Lake Washington Boulevard, according to the department.<\/p>\n
Officers developed probable cause for a felony charge of assault in the first degree, and a King County Sheriff’s Office helicopter responded and located the stolen red Hyundai.<\/p>\n
As the driver of the stolen vehicle headed from Renton into Tukwila, the Hyundai crossed the center lane into oncoming traffic and blew through red light intersections. The Hyundai crashed into a pole at Southcenter Mall, with the driver and passengers fleeing the vehicle, according to the department.<\/p>\n
Tukwila police assisted the Renton Police Department with locating and arresting two of the teenagers, with the second 14-year-old and 15-year-old suspect escaping arrest, according to the department. Officers located marijuana products on one of the arrested suspects of a specific store brand and called the shop to learn of a recent theft. <\/p>\n
Police have released the two arrested suspects to family members, according to the department.<\/p>\n
Investigation continues into the incident.<\/p>\n
Rates of motor vehicle theft in Renton with minors serving as suspects have increased from 2021 to 2023, after falling from 2019 to 2021.<\/p>\n
In 2019, minors served as the suspects in 18 motor vehicle theft cases, decreasing to 9 in 2020, and 3, in 2021. In 2022, that number increased to 16 suspects, with 98 juvenile motor vehicle theft suspects in 2023.<\/p>\n
Casey McNerthney, a spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office attributed the increase in minors committing motor vehicle theft countywide to a “nationwide TikTok trend” resulting in the thefts of Kias and Hyundais.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Teenagers arrested after stolen vehicle chase from Renton to Southcenter Mall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1126,"featured_media":45836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45835"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rentonnews.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=45835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}