Winky
Well-Known Member
All 'chases' should end like this!
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Multiple chase charges possible Teen was upset, off meds, lawyer says
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By Lourdes Medrano and Alexis Huicochea , arizona daily star
Sat Jun 4, 4:40 AM ET
The boy who was shot by Tucson police after stealing a Caterpillar earthmover and leading police on a 12-mile chase Thursday may face multiple criminal charges, including aggravated assault and endangerment.
Assistant Police Chief Kermit Miller said the boy's identity is being withheld while a decision is made on the possible charges. The teen remained in critical condition late Friday at University Medical Center.
Miller said investigators on Friday still didn't know exactly how the boy had gained access to the "scraper" from a construction site on North Dodge Boulevard near East River Road. But he noted the teen may have been upset that his family was moving when he left home on a bicycle Thursday afternoon.
The boy's attorney, Gregory J. Kuykendall said Friday that the 14-year-old was upset when he learned his family would be leaving Tucson, the only place he has called home.
"He stole the earthmover because he is a very immature, hyperactive kid with poor judgment," Kuykendall said. "He acted impulsively and did not know what to do once he turned it on and got it out on to the street."
Kuykendall said the boy, whom he also declined to identify, suffers from behavioral problems, including attention deficit disorder, and was not on his medication when he took the machine from the work site.
"I am not trying to justify his actions," Kuykendall said. "I am just trying to explain that he was not on his medication, which is a problem, and he had a bad reaction to the notion of moving out of state."
While there has been some speculation on the boy's experience with such machinery, his attorney said he had never ridden an earthmover before the chase and never had any access to construction sites.
"It appeared the boy knew what he was doing because it is a complicated process to even turn that machinery on," said Sgt. Carlos Valdez, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. "After he turned it on, he had to lift the rear bucket because it is dropped when parked to prevent theft. The machine cannot move freely unless the bucket is lifted. This is not like a car, you don't just turn the key and go."
However, Kuykendall is less concerned with how or why the boy took the earthmover and is more worried about why the decision was made to use lethal force on a kid and "shoot to kill."
Assistant Police Chief Miller defended his officers' decision to shoot.
"They were concerned about the safety of those officers," he stressed.
The officers were identified as Brian Knight, a three-year member of the Tucson Police Department, and Brandon Angulo, who has been with the department six years. Both are on administrative leave, which is routine after a shooting.
The shooting occurred around 9 p.m. Thursday, when the boy came to the end of North Camino de Oeste near West Speedway and began to back up into at least 19 officers in vehicles to turn the scraper around, Valdez said.
He was hit twice, in the torso area, Kuykendall said.
The boy's foot then came off the accelerator and the scraper rolled back into the desert, coming to a stop, Valdez said.
"They thought he was going to go over the vehicles, with the officers in them," said Miller. "They felt threatened so they shot."
Kuykendall said the officers had other options, like using nonlethal force.
The bizarre chase began shortly after 8 p.m. near East Grant and North Swan roads, Miller said.
Tucson police responding to a report of a power outage in the area began to receive 911 calls about a child driving a large earthmover southbound on Swan near Grant.
The broken utility pole knocked out electricity to about 1,300 customers of Tucson Electric Power, said spokesman John Brown.
Several drivers reported to police that the mammoth earth-moving machine, whose tires towered over passing passenger cars, had forced them off the road as it erratically wound its way through city streets.
Miller gave this account:
The chase began with the boy heading westbound on Grant, ignoring police orders to stop.
Along the way, the 40-ton scraper sheared off a utility pole, causing a power outage, and narrowly missing a bicyclist. Meanwhile, the number of squad cars grew around the scraper and a police helicopter hovered above as the youth kept driving up to 30 mph, ignoring red lights.
As officers tried to figure out ways to stop the earthmover - including shooting at the tires to deflate them - they created a "safety envelope" around it to avoid any injuries to the public.
In the end, police decided it was less hazardous to continue the chase to a less populated area. From Grant, the boy drove to Camino de Oeste, then turned south into the Tucson Mountain foothills. The earthmover stopped briefly near West Speedway, and officers readied for a foot chase. But then he started backing up.
Then, over a PA system, officers directed him to stop the machine. At one point, the boy appeared to ask the officers "why?"
The boy's attorney said he probably could not hear the commands of the officers over the noise of the machine and if he could, he probably could not control the vehicle in the way they were telling him to.
The earthmover belongs to the Ashton Co. Inc., which recently started widening River Road from Campbell Avenue east to Dodge Boulevard, as well as working on an extension of Alvernon Way that includes construction of a new Rillito River bridge.
Twenty-year-old Chad Porteck, who drives an Ashton scraper similar to the stolen one, said operating the machine is complicated. His guess is that the boy had some experience.
"Obviously, he knew how to turn off the brake and pick up the can - the bottom part of the scraper that drags on the ground," Porteck said at the construction site Friday. "And he knew how to control it on the road, which is not easy."
Larry Withrow, a company spokesman, said an internal investigation was under way to determine exactly how the boy was able to drive the machine away from a riverbed.
While anyone can potentially walk onto a construction site and climb onto the machines, Withrow said, a key is needed to start the scraper.
Driving the heavy scraper isn't exactly easy, he said, so the youth "had to have some knowledge of the equipment."
Withrow said heavy equipment is rarely stolen from construction sites. Nonetheless, he said, the company would take additional safety precautions.
"We're very fortunate no one else was hurt," he added.
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Multiple chase charges possible Teen was upset, off meds, lawyer says
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By Lourdes Medrano and Alexis Huicochea , arizona daily star
Sat Jun 4, 4:40 AM ET
The boy who was shot by Tucson police after stealing a Caterpillar earthmover and leading police on a 12-mile chase Thursday may face multiple criminal charges, including aggravated assault and endangerment.
Assistant Police Chief Kermit Miller said the boy's identity is being withheld while a decision is made on the possible charges. The teen remained in critical condition late Friday at University Medical Center.
Miller said investigators on Friday still didn't know exactly how the boy had gained access to the "scraper" from a construction site on North Dodge Boulevard near East River Road. But he noted the teen may have been upset that his family was moving when he left home on a bicycle Thursday afternoon.
The boy's attorney, Gregory J. Kuykendall said Friday that the 14-year-old was upset when he learned his family would be leaving Tucson, the only place he has called home.
"He stole the earthmover because he is a very immature, hyperactive kid with poor judgment," Kuykendall said. "He acted impulsively and did not know what to do once he turned it on and got it out on to the street."
Kuykendall said the boy, whom he also declined to identify, suffers from behavioral problems, including attention deficit disorder, and was not on his medication when he took the machine from the work site.
"I am not trying to justify his actions," Kuykendall said. "I am just trying to explain that he was not on his medication, which is a problem, and he had a bad reaction to the notion of moving out of state."
While there has been some speculation on the boy's experience with such machinery, his attorney said he had never ridden an earthmover before the chase and never had any access to construction sites.
"It appeared the boy knew what he was doing because it is a complicated process to even turn that machinery on," said Sgt. Carlos Valdez, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. "After he turned it on, he had to lift the rear bucket because it is dropped when parked to prevent theft. The machine cannot move freely unless the bucket is lifted. This is not like a car, you don't just turn the key and go."
However, Kuykendall is less concerned with how or why the boy took the earthmover and is more worried about why the decision was made to use lethal force on a kid and "shoot to kill."
Assistant Police Chief Miller defended his officers' decision to shoot.
"They were concerned about the safety of those officers," he stressed.
The officers were identified as Brian Knight, a three-year member of the Tucson Police Department, and Brandon Angulo, who has been with the department six years. Both are on administrative leave, which is routine after a shooting.
The shooting occurred around 9 p.m. Thursday, when the boy came to the end of North Camino de Oeste near West Speedway and began to back up into at least 19 officers in vehicles to turn the scraper around, Valdez said.
He was hit twice, in the torso area, Kuykendall said.
The boy's foot then came off the accelerator and the scraper rolled back into the desert, coming to a stop, Valdez said.
"They thought he was going to go over the vehicles, with the officers in them," said Miller. "They felt threatened so they shot."
Kuykendall said the officers had other options, like using nonlethal force.
The bizarre chase began shortly after 8 p.m. near East Grant and North Swan roads, Miller said.
Tucson police responding to a report of a power outage in the area began to receive 911 calls about a child driving a large earthmover southbound on Swan near Grant.
The broken utility pole knocked out electricity to about 1,300 customers of Tucson Electric Power, said spokesman John Brown.
Several drivers reported to police that the mammoth earth-moving machine, whose tires towered over passing passenger cars, had forced them off the road as it erratically wound its way through city streets.
Miller gave this account:
The chase began with the boy heading westbound on Grant, ignoring police orders to stop.
Along the way, the 40-ton scraper sheared off a utility pole, causing a power outage, and narrowly missing a bicyclist. Meanwhile, the number of squad cars grew around the scraper and a police helicopter hovered above as the youth kept driving up to 30 mph, ignoring red lights.
As officers tried to figure out ways to stop the earthmover - including shooting at the tires to deflate them - they created a "safety envelope" around it to avoid any injuries to the public.
In the end, police decided it was less hazardous to continue the chase to a less populated area. From Grant, the boy drove to Camino de Oeste, then turned south into the Tucson Mountain foothills. The earthmover stopped briefly near West Speedway, and officers readied for a foot chase. But then he started backing up.
Then, over a PA system, officers directed him to stop the machine. At one point, the boy appeared to ask the officers "why?"
The boy's attorney said he probably could not hear the commands of the officers over the noise of the machine and if he could, he probably could not control the vehicle in the way they were telling him to.
The earthmover belongs to the Ashton Co. Inc., which recently started widening River Road from Campbell Avenue east to Dodge Boulevard, as well as working on an extension of Alvernon Way that includes construction of a new Rillito River bridge.
Twenty-year-old Chad Porteck, who drives an Ashton scraper similar to the stolen one, said operating the machine is complicated. His guess is that the boy had some experience.
"Obviously, he knew how to turn off the brake and pick up the can - the bottom part of the scraper that drags on the ground," Porteck said at the construction site Friday. "And he knew how to control it on the road, which is not easy."
Larry Withrow, a company spokesman, said an internal investigation was under way to determine exactly how the boy was able to drive the machine away from a riverbed.
While anyone can potentially walk onto a construction site and climb onto the machines, Withrow said, a key is needed to start the scraper.
Driving the heavy scraper isn't exactly easy, he said, so the youth "had to have some knowledge of the equipment."
Withrow said heavy equipment is rarely stolen from construction sites. Nonetheless, he said, the company would take additional safety precautions.
"We're very fortunate no one else was hurt," he added.
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