Second brazen carjacking by young Tallahassee teens terrifies victim, leads to 100-mph chase
The uneasiness remained apparent in the voice of a 52-year-old Bristol woman Friday, three days after she was brutally beaten during a carjacking in the capital city.
In custody are four teenagers, ages 13-15, who were arrested after a police chase reaching speeds up to 105 mph in Port St. Joe, which is about 100 miles away.
“It was horrible and traumatic,” the woman told the Tallahassee Democrat, describing the attack in the Griffin Heights neighborhood. Still in fear, she requested anonymity.
This carjacking is the second involving young teens in less than a week span in the capital city. On Jan. 19, a Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare employee was assaulted in a carjacking at about 5:30 a.m. by four teens between the ages of 13 and 15 years old.
For the victim, it felt like a case of no good deed goes unpunished.
“I try to help people out and do good deeds, so if I can help somebody out, I do,” the woman said. “It’s almost to the point where I don’t want to help people out anymore.”
The woman travels from Bristol to Tallahassee in her Chevrolet SUV to work driving Doordash, Uber Eats and rideshare services. She said it was about 8 p.m. Wednesday when she took a break and parked in the lot of Target at 1861 W. Tennessee Street. Shortly afterwards, four young teen boys approached her car and asked for a ride home.
She told them she would need money for gas. One of the boys confirmed with an alleged uncle on a phone call that he would pay her $10 for the ride.
“I’ve never really been that fearful of anything,” said the woman, the mother of two grown sons, who added she had no concerns about helping the teens.
After taking the boys to Griffin Heights Apartments, 1010 Basin Street, one got out the front passenger seat to go and retrieve the money, leaving the other three teens in backseat of the car. They returned and told the woman the uncle was not home. She agreed to take them to another nearby location to meet an aunt of one of the boys.
“As we drove through the first complex (Griffin Heights), I started to get an uneasy feeling,” the woman said.
Their next stop was Springfield Apartments, 1700 Joe Louis Street. The same teen exited the car alone again and went upstairs and came back down and said the aunt wasn’t home.
It was at this time, the woman said, the four teens began to beat the woman, the three in the backseat grabbing her face from behind and brutally punching her and forcing her to get out of the car.
She was left on the ground, shaken, bruised, shocked and in an unfamiliar setting.
Her SUV was spotted at 2:26 a.m. Thursday by a Port St. Joe patrol officer at the 16th Street Park, about two hours from Tallahassee. According to a Port St. Joe police report, once the officer ran the tag and found the car was reported stolen out of Tallahassee, he called for backup.
As the driver began to take off, the officer attempted to make a traffic stop and the vehicle began to drive up to 90 miles per hour and run stop signs leading to Highway 98. The report says the car reached speeds up to 105 miles per hour when the officers discontinued the chase.
The SUV eventually ran out of gas.
Three juveniles were detained at the scene.
The woman was notified by TPD on Friday morning that a fourth teen, had also been arrested in connection with the case in Tallahassee. According to TPD, two of the teens are 13, and the other two, 14 and 15. The Tallahassee Democrat names juvenile suspects in violent crimes when they are charged as adults.
The Bristol woman told the State’s Attorney’s Office she wants the teens prosecuted.
“The saddest part of it was that three of them were extremely young,” the woman said “With everything that happened, they were intending to do this.”
TPD said a handgun was located inside the vehicle. Each teen faces charges of grand theft of a motor vehicle, carjacking and battery.
The woman retrieved her SUV from a lot in Gulf County. The car is drivable, however, her engine light has been on. A service person told her there is engine damage due to the oil burning out.
She said the interior was ransacked, with trash, tobacco remnants and personal paperwork thrown around the car. She says the car now holds a strong stench of marijuana.
As for work, she is leery of returning to Tallahassee to her rideshare job.
“It’s probably going to be a while before I come back to Tallahassee to work,” the woman told the Tallahassee Democrat.
Contact Democrat writer Alaijah Brown at ABrown1@gannett.com and on Twitter at @BrownAlaijah.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Victim recounts brazen Tallahassee carjacking; four young teens arrested
