14-year-old rams police car, flees, officers say


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WEST VALLEY CITY — Police were looking for a 14-year-old driver and one other person who apparently rammed a West Valley police officer's patrol car early Thursday.

Just after 2 a.m., an officer pulled over a sedan with three people inside near 3900 South and 2600 West for erratic driving, said West Valley Police Lt. Kent Stokes.

"As the officer … approached the vehicle which had stopped, (the driver) started backing up and rammed into (the officer's) car, and went back and forth a few times until he was able to escape the parking lot," he said.

The trio drove off in their damaged vehicle to a nearby neighborhood and the officer followed in his damaged patrol car, Stokes said. The three tried to get out and run when their car stopped working, he said.

A 16-year-old teen who told police he was the passenger was captured and arrested. A gun was also recovered near the crime scene, Stokes said. Officers also recovered the sedan.

Based on information collected at the scene, police believe the driver was a 14-year-old boy and there was also a third person in the car, said West Valley police spokeswoman Roxanne Vainuku.

The 16-year-old was uncooperative with investigators Thursday, so police are using other sources of information to identify the 14-year-old, according to Vainuku. Police were also still narrowing down leads on the identity of the third person in the vehicle. Vainuku was unsure whether that third person was an adult or a juvenile.

Investigators aren't sure what caused the boy to drive erratically or where he was driving to when he was pulled over.

"The officer was about to end his shift, I believe, and just saw the boy driving a little erratically," Vainuku said. "It was just a simple pull-over traffic stop."

The officer was not hurt in the collision, she said.

Investigators say the vehicle belongs to a relative of one of the three. That relative is currently out of the country. Police were still determining Thursday whether the car was actually stolen, Vainuku said.

Contributing: Ben Lockhart

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