Kent Police officers with guns drawn boarded a Metro bus on the East Hill in search of a teen with a gun but didn’t find the boy.
At about 4:35 p.m. Wednesday along Benson Road (108th Avenue SE) near South 240th Street, an officer on his way to an alarm call saw a young teen with a handgun in his waistband, according to an email from Kent Police spokesman Jarod Kasner.
As the boy crossed the street, the officer confronted the teen, giving him commands to stop and drop the gun, but the boy ran from the officer and out of his sight. Additional officers responded and conducted an area check for the teen. Witnesses claimed a boy matching the suspect’s description boarded a Metro bus.
Officers stopped the bus and had passengers exit the bus, Kasner said. A teen matching the description was on the bus, but it was confirmed that it was not the teen that had the gun.
Police later identfied the suspect as a 14-year-old but have not yet located him, Kasner said. Police filed the case with King County juvenile prosecutors.
A witness posted a question to the Kent Reporter Facebook page about the bus incident and said as many as 20 officers responded to the bus stop and that lanes of traffic were blocked. The witness said officers had their guns drawn and told people to get off the bus with their hands in the air.
Talk to us
Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
