Armed Teen Captured in Chase Near School

LAGUNA BEACH — School buses were diverted and children herded to a multipurpose room as two teenagers, one of them armed, crashed a stolen car and sprinted through the neighborhood around Top of the World Elementary School on Friday.

As children arrived at school on foot and in cars and buses, a speeding, zigzagging police chase suddenly tore through the exclusive neighborhood. The fleeing teens crashed the car and ran, as police chased them through ravines and verdant slopes, aided by helicopters and dogs.

They arrested the armed suspect, a 16-year-old from Riverside, but didn’t find the second one.

Arriving buses were diverted to nearby Laguna Beach High School. Students already inside the elementary school were moved to a single multipurpose room under police watch, as police and firefighters searched the campus.

After scouring hillsides and backyards for three hours, police called off the search for the second youth and declared the area safe.

Classes were canceled for the day, and counselors were brought in to help the shaken children.

Laguna Beach Sgt. Jason Kravetz said police in Newport Beach had gotten a call earlier Friday from a resident about two men acting suspiciously in a Mazda RX-7, which proved to have been reported stolen earlier in Anaheim.

Police broadcast the car’s description, and about 7:15 a.m., a Laguna Beach patrol officer saw it and followed it, without lights or siren, until a second squad car driven by Kravetz joined near City Hall. At that point, the Mazda sped up and the chase was on.

“Fortunately, they didn’t know our city very well,” Kravetz said. The stolen car was driven through winding streets, climbing the bluffs and slopes of the Top of the World community for several minutes until it hit a curb in the 2900 block of Mountain View Drive, lost a tire and spun out in a frontyard. As police pulled up, the two teenagers ran, the driver carrying a gun.

They dashed through several backyards, eventually splitting up, Kravetz said. Police followed the armed teenager and found him hiding under bushes on a hillside.

When it was over, Laguna Beach school officials summoned counselors from the Children and Youth Mental Health division of the county Health Care Agency, who talked to the children, let them draw pictures and showed a video of the Peter Pan movie remake “Hook.” Follow-up work will be done next week, said Carol Hayes, district psychologist.

“There was lots of drawing, lots of expression,” Hayes said. “But they are scared. There are some kids who are nervous about coming back to school. They’re worried.”

For some of the parents, the scene evoked unsettling thoughts of school violence elsewhere in the nation.

“You wonder if you can be safe anywhere,” said Nellie Wilson, who went to Laguna Beach High to pick up her granddaughters.

Some parents said it had been difficult to get information. Kristin Martin said she had trouble learning where her stepdaughter was and eventually found her at the high school.

“It’s hard; you don’t know where your child is,” she said.

Martin learned about the incident after her mother called her, she said.

“There has been a community of moms taking charge, letting people know what’s going on.”

The suspect in custody was taken to Juvenile Hall. He faces charges that could include possession of a stolen car, possession of a firearm, evading arrest and other counts, Kravetz said.

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Hot Pursuit

An early morning police chase of suspected car thieves wound through downtown Laguna Beach and ended at Top of the World Elementary School.

1. Police responding to reports of a suspicious vehicle follow car

2. Occupants stop, abandon car

3. One armed teen captured; a second remains at large

Source: Laguna Beach Police Department