Carjacking Ends in Escape Try, Crash

One of two juveniles suspected of carjacking allegedly ran a red light and crashed into two cars, pushing one vehicle into a construction worker nearby, police said Thursday.

The worker and the car drivers suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, investigators said. The juveniles, both of them 17 and from Compton, were not injured and were booked on robbery and carjacking charges. The teen who broadsided the other vehicles also was arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run driving.

About 10:40 p.m. Wednesday, two teenagers in a stolen utility vehicle pulled up behind the driver of a truck and carjacked him at gunpoint, said police Officer D.R. Smith. The victim then called police, who spotted the pair, one following the other, at Beach Boulevard and Lambert Road, police said.

The juvenile driving the truck was taken into custody without incident, but the other driver sped through the red light, crashed and then tried to run away. He was captured hiding in a mobile home park nearby, police said.

Both teenagers told police they were in a Compton street gang, Smith said.