Seattle teens accused in Portland crime spree to remain in custody for now
PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — A juvenile judge on Monday declined to release four Seattle-area teenagers who were arrested Saturday, accused of going on a crime spree in Portland that ended with the shooting of a gas station employee five times.
Police said that before the shooting, the teenagers carjacked a rideshare driver, attempted to break into a parked car and threatened the owner with drawn guns when he came out of his home, robbed a gas station on Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, attempted to rob a gas station on 54th before moving on to the robbery at the 76 gas station on Northeast Broadway, where the shooting happened.
The employee who was shot, four times in the stomach and once in the leg, is expected to survive. The extent of his injuries is unknown.
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No victims or their families spoke in court Monday.
Parents and relatives of the four minors, ages 15 through 17, came to the hearing and requested that their homes, and in some cases homes of friends or family in the Portland area, be considered for a safe release plan.
According to the Portland Police Bureau, the teenagers were in Portland because of a connection one or more of them have to the area.
"I don't think the characterization that these young people came to Portland to commit these crimes is necessarily how I'd frame it," said Sergeant Matt Jacobson, an investigator on the case during an interview with media outlets on Monday. "There were some connections to the Portland area and these crimes happened while they're here."
Had the Seattle teens committed the alleged crimes in their own state, they may have faced more severe sentencing guidelines.
While both Oregon and Washington have undergone recent juvenile justice reforms, Oregon's did away with automatic waivers to adult court for violent felony convictions, Washington did not.
In 2018, the state revamped its automatic juvenile declination (waiver) to adult court limiting its use to teens 16 and 17 years of age convicted of murder, manslaughter, first-degree child rape, kidnapping, or first-degree assault.
In Washington as in Oregon, prosecution can request a waiver into adult court, although data in Oregon shows that is rarely granted. In fact, Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez has told KATU all adult court waivers for juveniles in Oregon since the reform passed were the result of a plea deal reached between prosecutors and the defendants, and that no contested waivers have gone through yet.