Teens arrested in Pierce County after woman carjacked at gunpoint in her driveway

Three teenagers were arrested Friday night near South Hill who Pierce County deputies suspect ambushed a 50-year-old woman in the driveway of her home and stole her vehicle at gunpoint, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

In two different vehicles, the suspects led deputies on a chase from a nearby gas station that ended with one group crashing the victim’s SUV into another vehicle, Pierce County Sheriff’s Department wrote in a Facebook post. Deputies said the other group bailed out of their car near Frederickson.

Two 16-year-old boys and one 16-year-old girl were apprehended and booked into Remann Hall, each on suspicion of various charges including first-degree robbery, first-degree assault, felony eluding and resisting arrest. Remann Hall is the county’s juvenile detention center.

The mother of one suspect reported that her son recently had been arrested for a similar incident, according to the Sheriff’s Department. She said her son had been on house arrest.

Deputies were dispatched at about 7:30 p.m. for a report of an armed carjacking east of Frederickson in the 8700 block of 196th Street Court East, according to the Facebook post. The incident began when the victim was driving home from picking up take-out food. She later told deputies she noticed a car behind her when she was arriving home, but she didn’t think anything of it and pulled into her driveway.

As she got out of her SUV, deputies said, two people held her at gunpoint and demanded her keys. The woman didn’t immediately cooperate, and one of the suspects struck her in the head with a firearm. Deputies said the suspects got in the woman’s car and drove away. Others inside the car they arrived in drove off, too.

Both vehicles were located at a nearby gas station. Deputies said they tried to contact the occupants of the vehicles, but both fled. According to the post, deputies had probable cause for armed robbery and assault, so they pursued.

The suspect vehicles went in different directions, so deputies split up. Those in the victim’s SUV reportedly tried to pass traffic on the right near the intersection of 94th Avenue East and 128th Street East, but they collided with another vehicle and were arrested.

Deputies said the people in the other vehicle bailed out of the car near the 7400 block of 176th Street East. The suspect vehicle reportedly rolled backward into a patrol car. Deputies located one of those people using a police dog.