Four youths, ages 15–17, were arrested after a stolen SUV chase ended near SeaTac; two others remain at large.
SEATTLE, Wash. — Parents urged a juvenile court judge Monday to free two teen girls arrested after a stolen Dodge Durango sped from officers and gunfire erupted along Interstate 5 on Saturday night. Police said no officers were hit and they did not return fire as a bystander’s car was struck.
The case moved quickly from a late-Saturday pursuit to first court appearances Monday afternoon, underscoring concern over youth violence and stolen cars in the region. Seattle police said three girls, ages 15 to 17, and a 16-year-old boy were booked after the chase ended near South 188th Street and Military Road South. Prosecutors said two teens with prior cases would stay in detention; two others were released to electronic home monitoring. Investigators are still looking for at least two additional suspects who ran from the SUV. A hearing is scheduled Thursday, with possible charging decisions expected before then.
According to police, the incident began around 9 p.m. Saturday when Community Response Group officers tried to stop a Durango driving erratically on Aurora Avenue North. The vehicle sped off; officers did not pursue. Unmarked units later found the SUV parked in South Seattle and directed marked cars toward it. As the Durango headed south on I-5, someone inside fired several rounds at a plain car driven by a Seattle officer, police said. The officer was not hurt. Fragments and a bullet pierced a nearby driver’s windshield, scattering into the vehicle and landing on the motorist’s lap. Officers chased the Durango into Tukwila and used a PIT maneuver near South 188th Street and Military Road South. Six people bolted from the SUV. Four were arrested; two escaped on foot.
Inside the courtroom Monday, relatives described the girls as students who panicked once the SUV took off. “I just feel like she made a bad decision,” one parent told the judge, adding that the teen had no record and had “learned from this.” Defense attorneys argued some passengers did not know the Durango was stolen and could not safely leave once the chase began. A witness to the freeway gunfire, Oksana Matsegora, said she ducked as rounds flew and later found fragments in her car. “It feels surreal,” she said, describing how officers apologized and told her the shooters were aiming at police, not her.
Police said officers recovered a handgun near the abandoned SUV and another on the 16-year-old boy who was arrested. The teens were booked into the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children & Family Justice Center on investigation of first-degree assault, possession of a stolen vehicle, unlawful possession of a firearm and attempting to elude. A man with a gunshot wound arrived at Valley Medical Center in Renton shortly after the arrests; investigators have not said how, or whether, he is linked to the freeway shooting. No officers fired their weapons during the incident, according to police. The department listed the incident number as 2025-350658 and said gun-violence detectives are leading the case.
The chase and gunfire came during a months-long rise in stolen Kia and Dodge models in the Seattle area and repeated police warnings about armed teens in hot cars. The freeway shooting recalled other rare attacks on law enforcement in the region and briefly shut lanes as officers searched the shoulder for casings and collected video from passing drivers. The arrest location near SeaTac City Hall drew additional units from neighboring agencies and a police dog team. While four teens were quickly detained, the two who fled into the dark drew a block-by-block search that ended without additional arrests.
Prosecutors said two of the four arrested teens had prior juvenile matters, including robbery and custodial assault, and a judge maintained their secure detention status. The other two, including at least one girl, were ordered to home monitoring and barred from contacting co-defendants. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said next hearings are set for Thursday, Dec. 4, where probable-cause findings and charging decisions could be addressed. If charges are filed, the teens would return to court for arraignments and potential detention reviews. Police said the investigation remains active, including ballistics testing of recovered guns, forensic work on the Durango, and efforts to identify the two suspects who ran.
At the freeway scene on Saturday night, headlights crawled past police cruisers as officers waved traffic along the shoulder. Commuters stared at the Durango resting at an angle near the off-ramp, its front end damaged from the maneuver that forced it to stop. In court Monday, a parent pleaded for leniency, promising tighter supervision if the girl came home. “She’s never been in trouble,” the parent said, voice shaking. Casey McNerthney, a spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, said a warrant in a prior custodial assault case factored into keeping one teen in secure detention. Outside, Matsegora said she was grateful to be unhurt but replayed the sound of glass shattering as she drove.
By late Monday, police still sought the two remaining suspects and had not publicly linked the Renton gunshot patient to the case. Investigators planned to return to court Thursday and continue analyzing evidence from the seized SUV. The four teens remained under court orders not to contact each other as detectives worked to map the shots fired on I-5 and determine who pulled the trigger.
Author note: Last updated December 3, 2025.