Three teenagers ran away Sunday from a D.C. juvenile detention facility in Pennsylvania, drove a stolen car into the District and robbed someone, authorities said Monday.
The Metropolitan Police Department issued a notice about the teens, saying they escaped from the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services facility and stole a 2016 red Land Rover SUV with Pennsylvania plates.
Officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 770 block of Eighth Street NE at 10:49 p.m. Sunday, the MPD said in a news release.
“People are ducking down for cover behind the cars, just trying to avoid the crossfire,” Brendan Gehrke, who said he heard about six gunshots, told WRC-TV.
Officers found a man suffering a non-life-threatening gunshot injury who told them he had been robbed.
The victim was hospitalized, and license plate reader data indicated the suspects in the stolen Land Rover were responsible for the shooting, police said.
One of the man’s neighbors told WRC-TV the teens stole the man’s watch. One neighbor said the victim has since been released from a hospital.
Officers spotted the SUV heading east in the 1100 block of H Street NE. Using a helicopter, the police found the car. Five of its occupants ran away, but two got back into the car and drove away, police said. Officers nabbed one suspect on foot and found a rifle nearby.
The SUV was spotted on Alabama Avenue SE at 11:15 p.m., prompting a pursuit with officers in cruisers and the helicopter. Officers stopped the Land Rover at Minnesota Avenue and T Street SE and arrested two suspects in the stolen car.
One of the arrested suspects had escaped the DYRS facility in Pennsylvania. The teen and the other two suspects were charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, robbery and related gun offenses.
MPD is looking for the other two teens who fled the Pennsylvania facility.
DYRS is “actively coordinating with the Metropolitan Police Department to support efforts to locate and safely return the youth,” the agency told WUSA-TV.
