16-year-olds carjacked people in La Quinta, Palm Desert in a single day, sheriff says
Two 16-year-olds committed two armed carjackings in the same day this week in the Coachella Valley, including one where the victim was a 75-year-old woman, sheriff's investigators say.
The teen suspects, one from Cathedral City and one from Thousand Palms, were arrested after the second attack, according to a press release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. Two 18-year-old men, David Reyes of Palm Desert and Daryl Urbano of Coachella, were also charged in the first of the two crimes.
Around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, deputies got a report of a carjacking in the 47-700 block Dune Palms Road in La Quinta. Two men, one of them armed, had approached a 75-year-old woman and demanded her purse and black Camaro.
They fled the scene, heading west on Highway 111 in the victim’s car and a white Lincoln sedan. Deputies later saw the cars heading north on Village Court in Indian Wells and tried to stop them. But the Camaro didn’t yield and fled by heading west on Highway 111 again, while the Lincoln rammed into a patrol unit and disabled both cars, the department said.
Reyes and Urbano fled into a residential neighborhood but were arrested around 7 a.m. after deputies set up a perimeter and searched the area for hours. The were booked on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a crime, carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon, jail records show.
The victim’s car was found in the 69-100 block of Dinah Shore Drive in Cathedral City, the sheriff's department said.
Less than 12 hours later, around 6:30 p.m., deputies were called to the 34-000 block of Monterey Avenue, where a 21-year-old Coachella resident had advertised that he was selling his car on Facebook and arranged to meet someone.
The two 16-year-olds showed up, demanded the man's keys, then pulled out guns when he resisted, the sheriff's department said, adding that one of the teens hit the victim several times and threatened to kill him. The man was treated in the hospital for moderate injuries and released, the department said.
The teenagers fled in the stolen car but then left it near the 74-000 block of Jeri Lane in Palm Desert before leaving on foot, according to the sheriff's press release. Their guns were found near where the car was ditched, and the two were later arrested near Shepherd Lane and Gerald Ford Drive.
Both 16-year-olds are facing charges of carjacking, assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, and illegally possessing firearms, the department said, declining to release their names since they are minors.
Ani Gasparyan covers the western Coachella Valley cities of Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City. Reach her at ani.gasparyan@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Teens carjacked people in La Quinta, Palm Desert, Riverside sheriff says
