Sheriff’s office: 1 charged after juveniles in stolen cars crashed into civilian vehicles

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an incident on April 7 in which officers say multiple stolen vehicles crashed into civilian vehicles.

The incident resulted in a juvenile boy being charged, the sheriff’s office says.

According to a Facebook post from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, multiple agencies were working together in Minneapolis on an unrelated task when officers saw several stolen cars driving recklessly and eventually crashing into civilian cars in two separate circumstances.

Both of the stolen vehicles were occupied by several minors. The post says multiple people were injured as a result of the crashes.

Following the crashes, the juveniles ran away but were apprehended by officers. One of the juveniles had a fully automatic pistol with an extended magazine at the time of his arrest. He was the only person ultimately charged, according to a spokesperson for sheriff’s office.

In the Facebook post, Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt said, “Instances like these make it evident that juvenile crime is increasing in both frequency and severity. The victims in these crashes sustained broken bones and significant damage to their vehicles. We need to hold juveniles accountable for their actions after a crime is committed, but we also need to dedicate resources to engage our youth and prevent these crimes from occurring in the first place. It’s passed time to be proactive; we have to act now to save the community from the behavior of these kids and we have to save these kids from themselves.”

At the time of the incident, detectives from the Violent Offender Task Force (VOTF) were working a focused enforcement detail with the Minneapolis Police Department, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). A focused enforcement detail is a regularly scheduled collaboration between multiple law enforcement agencies for the purpose of focusing law enforcement resources on real-time crime trends.