15-year-old Leads Police on Roundabout Chase

A Wauwatosa Police officer was patroling the area of North 74th Street and West Meineke Avenue on at about 11:30 Wednesday night, on the lookout for a vehicle stolen the night before in the 2400 block of North 74th.

He spotted the black Jeep Cherokee parked in the 7200 block of Meineke with its lights on. He saw two people inside and pulled up behind it, read the license plate, identified it as an occupied stolen vehicle and called for assistance.

The officer then spotlighted the Jeep, and the driver revved the engine. The officer turned on his lights and the Jeep took off. The officer cranked up his siren and off they went, westbound on Meineke and through a maze of residential streets at up to 60 mph, running stop signs and screeching around tight corners.

After a 1.9-mile circuit of the area, the Jeep finally stopped in the 2000 block of West 54th Street and both occupants jumped out and ran away through yards. The officer pursued the driver on foot when the two suspects split up, yelling “Stop, police, stop!” several times.

The officer, wearing full gear, caught up with the driver in the middle of 55th Street and “decentralized” him – that is, he took him to the ground. The suspect, who proved to be a 15-year-old Milwaukee boy, yelled “OK, OK, I give up,” and was put in handcuffs. He was found to have a pocket knife and a single small-caliber bullet in his pockets.

Meanwhile, other officers were searching for the passenger, who had last been seen running up the driveway of a home in the 2000 block of North 54th Street. The officer who had made the first arrest was approached by a 15-year-old girl who said she lived there and was afraid to go to her house. She was told she should wait for officers to check the house, but she went in anyway, then came back out and said everything was fine.

But the officer became suspicious and questioned her, asking if she knew who the suspects might be. She told officers she had been arrested for possession of stolen property about a year ago, and the officer remembered the case and that two young suspects had not been caught. He asked if the suspect was hiding in her house, and she became upset and started yelling.

He asked if she would let police search her home to make sure no one was hiding there. She said her mother did not like police and would not allow it. The officer told her he didn’t want to talk to her anymore and told her to go home. Then she came back out with her mother, who told police she didn’t think anyone had come in but said they could look. Officers finally searched the home but found no one.

The 15-year-old driver was charged with felony eluding arrest and operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent.

The pursuit went like this: Police chased the boy west on Meineke from 72nd; south on 73rd; east on Lloyd; south on 53rd; west on Vine, north on 54th. The nearly 2-mile chase lasted 2 minutes, 50 seconds.