Dunbar student faces 10 charges in crime spree
Suspect was shot by police after dangerous scene in Miamisburg.
The 17-year-old will face multiple charges for“terrorizing the community”in an 18-hour crime spree from Dayton to Miamisburg.
Prosecutors say a 17-year-old will face multiple charges for “terrorizing the community” in an 18-hour crime spree from Dayton to Miamisburg, where he was shot by police who stopped a dangerous scene at a busy interchange.
The Dunbar High School student may face those 10 charges in adult court. Prosecutors will seek to try him as an adult for crimes that include firing on an officer and claiming to be an undercover federal agent, all of which they allege he committed Feb. 4-5.
Court documents filed Tuesday charged the Dayton teen with seven counts of aggravated robbery, one count of felonious assault on a police officer, one count of impersonating an officer and a weapons charge. He was charged Feb. 6 with one count of aggravated robbery and has been in custody since.
Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney Mathias Heck Jr. also filed documents to transfer all charges to adult court. A hearing on that issue is scheduled for April 16, a judge said Tuesday.
The Miamisburg incident, which occurred just after 2 p.m., “could have resulted in a number of injuries and deaths,” Heck said in announcing the moves.
Heck said the crimes the teen is accused of began in Dayton on Sunday night, Feb. 4, when he carjacked a vehicle he used Monday afternoon in the robbery of a Shell station near the Ohio 725/Interstate 75 interchange.
After the Shell robbery, prosecutors said, the car stolen Sunday night broke down, prompting the defendant to use a semi-automatic gun in seeking to carjack four vehicles while attempting to escape.
Off-duty Miami Twp. Police Officer James Swearingen arrived on the scene, court documents show. He was among at least four law enforcement officers — including a DEA agent — in the vicinity. Heck said Swearingen got out of his vehicle, identified himself as an officer and ordered to the teen to drop the weapon.
The suspect pointed the gun at Swearingen, and the officer fired two shots, wounding the teen in the right arm, Heck said.
“We have a fleeing criminal brandishing a .45 caliber — that’s a large-caliber firearm — pointing it at police officer, in addition to multiple law enforcement officers (who came) to that scene in an attempt to capture him,” Heck said.
A crime involving a deadly weapon and a threat on law enforcement in a fluid situation near “a heavily-congested area — there were also many, many other cars and citizens in that area,” cannot be tried in juvenile court, Heck said.
“We cannot and will not tolerate juveniles in our community committing increasingly violent crimes,” he added. “This defendant should have been in school .... So instead, he’s out terrorizing the community.”
The April 16 court date will be a probable cause hearing to decide if all 10 charges should be moved to adult court, Montgomery County Juvenile Court Judge Anthony Capizzi said Tuesday as the defendant appeared in court.
If he is convicted, “young man you’re looking at a substantial amount of time,” Capizzi told him.
If the case stays in juvenile court, a conviction would detain the teen until his 21st birthday. With an adult court conviction on all counts, the judge told him, “you’re easily looking at 20 to 40 years.”