11 and 12-year-old arrested after race leads to crash in St. Paul

Two juveniles were arrested Wednesday night after one of their vehicles crashed while they were racing in St. Paul.

St. Paul Police said officers were called to the area of Ivy Avenue East and Flandrau Street at about 6:30 p.m. While officers were en route, they were informed that as many as six juveniles had run away from the scene. Once they arrived, officers found a 2016 Toyota RAV4 that had been stolen.

A witness told police she’d seen two vehicles traveling eastbound at a high rate of speed. Both failed to stop at a stop sign and continued east on Ivy Avenue when the RAV4 went off the road near Flandrau Street, struck a retaining wall and a tree and then continued east before hitting another tree.

The second vehicle, a dark-colored hatchback, stopped briefly before driving away.

The witness told police a group of kids got out of the crashed vehicle and ran away, but police said she was able to provide detailed descriptions of the kids.

Police later found two of the kids — an 11-year-old and a 12-year-old — near Ivy and White Bear avenues at a bus stop. While officers approached them, police said the 12-year-old dumped a .40-caliber handgun that turned out to be a BB gun behind a bus bench.

The 11-year-old was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries suffered in the crash, and both kids were then taken to the Juvenile Detention Center for stealing a car.