2 Teen-Agers Held for Hurling Rock That Injured Driver

Two teen-age boys believed responsible for hurling a 9-pound chunk of concrete that smashed through a sports car’s sunroof on Interstate 5 last week, leaving the driver critically injured, were arrested Tuesday.

Tips from witnesses to the Feb. 29 incident at the Pershing Drive overpass led to the arrests of a 15-year-old Point Loma resident and a 13-year-old who lives in Golden Hill. Because they are minors, the names of the boys will not be made public, Assistant Police Chief Robert Burgreen said at a press conference.

Kurt R. Meyering, 24, was still on life-support systems and in critical condition Tuesday at Mercy Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The concrete crashed through the sunroof of the 1984 Corvette that Meyering’s girlfriend, Jane Casey, had purchased just 15 minutes before the accident. Casey, who was riding in the passenger’s seat, was not hurt.

Two Rocks Thrown

Burgreen said the department will ask the district attorney’s office to charge the youths with three counts of attempted murder since the investigation revealed that more than one rock was hurled that night. He said it will be up to the district attorney to decide whether to charge the youths as juveniles or as adults.

“A total of two rocks (were thrown) at two separate vehicles,” Lt. Phil Jarvis said.

Jarvis, asked whether he felt that the two boys were responsible for the rock throwings, replied: “Absolutely.”

Police publicly requested information about the incident from the public after it was determined by investigators that the piece of concrete had not accidently broken free from the freeway overpass.

Meyering’s family also sought the public’s help, handing out flyers asking anyone with information to contact authorities.

On Tuesday those efforts “finally paid off” as a result of several tips linking the youngsters to the rock-throwing incidents, Burgreen said. Investigators said transients and others who frequently cross the overpass supplied police with the needed information.

“It was a combination of contacts by law enforcement people and people relating information and then other persons coming forward voluntarily,” Jarvis said.

The Point Loma boy was arrested near his home, Burgreen said, and the boy from Golden Hill was picked up at his school and arrested after questioning.

Burgreen would not say if the boys were involved in any other previous rock-throwing incidents or whether they expressed any remorse over the incident.

Jarvis said investigators believe the youngsters acted alone. He said the boys were being held in juvenile hall and the case will be presented to the district attorney this week.

Police said an unrelated rock-throwing incident, this one on the eastbound lanes of Interstate 8, occurred about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday when a stone was tossed from the College Avenue overpass, shattering a car’s windshield.

Police spokesman Bill Robinson said, the motorist, who escaped injury, declined to file a report with police.