By Laurie K. Blandford
Treasure Coast Newspapers
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — A 15-year-old boy is accused of breaking into a Fort Pierce police cruiser, ransacking it and dousing it with bleach.
The teen, arrested Tuesday, was charged with armed burglary to a vehicle, grand theft, grand theft of a firearm, felony criminal mischief, unlawful possession of a firearm by a minor, resisting officers without violence and violation of probation, said Master Sgt. Frank Sabol of the Port St. Lucie Police Department.
Police officers went to an undisclosed address about 2 a.m. March 26 after they got a report of shots fired in the area, Sabol said.
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Officers found a Fort Pierce police cruiser parked in the officer’s driveway with its doors open. The front driver’s side window had been busted out, and the inside of the car was ransacked and bleach had been poured into it.
The Fort Pierce police officer told Port St. Lucie police officers what had been stolen: a gun rack that held his Bushmaster AR-15 rifle and a Glock handgun, two rifle magazines with ammunition, two Glock magazines with ammunition, a tint meter and a laptop computer.
The teen likely had fired guns stolen from the vehicle, Sabol said. He didn’t know what was used to break the window.
Crime scene investigators found blood samples from inside the driver’s side door where the teen had cut himself on the broken glass, Sabol said, and DNA results came back matching him.
When police detectives went to the 15-year-old’s house, the teen ran out the back, Sabol said. Detectives chased him, caught up with him and arrested the teen, who was on probation for a previous arrest.
The teen was taken to St. Lucie Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Fort Pierce, Sabol said.
Treasure Coast Newspapers, while customarily doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes, does name some juveniles depending on the seriousness of the crime, their age, aggravating circumstances and other factors.
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©2017 the Treasure Coast Newspapers (Stuart, Fla.)