Sheriff’s officers say that two 16-year-olds stole two cars with guns on the same day in the Coachella Valley this week. One of the victims was a 75-year-old woman.
A press statement from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department says that the teens, one from Cathedral City and one from Thousand Palms, were caught after the second attack. In the first of the two crimes, two 18-year-old guys, David Reyes of Palm Desert and Daryl Urbano of Coachella, were also charged.
On Tuesday at 12:30 a.m., a car was stolen in the 47-700 block of Dune Palms Road in La Quinta. Two guys, one of whom was carrying a gun, walked up to a 75-year-old woman and asked for her purse and black Camaro.
The Car Was Found
They took the victim’s car and a white Lincoln sedan and drove west on Highway 111 to get away from the scene. Later, deputies saw the cars going north on Indian Wells’ Village Court and tried to stop them. The department said that the Camaro didn’t stop and kept going west on Highway 111, while the Lincoln crashed into a police car and stopped both cars.
Reyes and Urbano ran away into a residential area, but they were caught at 7 a.m. after police set up a perimeter and looked for hours. Jail records show that they were taken in on suspicion of plotting a crime, stealing a car, and attacking someone with a dangerous weapon.
The sheriff’s office said that the car of the victim was found in the 69-100 block of Dinah Shore Drive in Cathedral City.
The tweet below confirms the news:
16-year-olds carjacked people in La Quinta, Palm Desert in a single day, sheriff says https://t.co/zqR7C3srgf
— Desert Sun News Feed (@DesertSunNews) April 13, 2023
Less than 12 hours later, at 6:30 p.m., cops were called to the 34-000 block of Monterey Avenue, where a 21-year-old Coachella resident had posted on Facebook that he was selling his car and made plans to meet someone.
The sheriff’s office said that two 16-year-olds showed up and demanded the man’s keys. When the man refused, they pulled out guns, and one of the teens hit the man several times and threatened to kill him. The guy was taken to the hospital and treated for moderate injuries. He was then released.
A news release from the sheriff’s office says that the teens drove away in the stolen car, but then left it near the 74-000 block of Jeri Lane in Palm Desert. They then left on foot. The two were later caught near Shepherd Lane and Gerald Ford Drive. Their guns were found near where they left the car.
The police department said that both 16-year-olds are being charged with carjacking, assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, and illegally having guns. Since they are children, their names will not be released.
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