CLEVELAND (WJW) – Video just released to the FOX 8 I-Team shows a woman carjacked and kidnapped at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
Police identified two suspects, just 14 years old, but we’ve found one has stayed on the streets. Kid criminals terrorized a woman, but she’s only getting some justice.
The carjacking happened back on Halloween, but the video has just now been released to the I-Team. So, we did some digging to find out what happened to the suspects in juvenile court.
The new video shows two teens standing outside the Hopkins Airport terminal. Then, they get into a car, but not their car.
A police report shows they carjacked a woman waiting for someone in the terminal.
On the video, you can see the woman reaching over to blow the horn as the robbers pull away. Seconds later, you see strangers scramble to help as the woman tried to get out of the car, but the carjackers pull her back in and take off.
They finally pushed the woman out of the car and drove away.
Cleveland Police eventually found the woman’s car and identified the teen suspects, but what’s happened over the past five months shows how often kid criminals don’t get brought to justice.
In this case, just one 14-year-old got convicted,
The other teen is still on the run. He’s facing charges, but can’t be found.
We also checked on how many juveniles are wanted for felony crimes. Right now, in Cuyahoga County, records show arrest warrants for 1,300 kids facing felony charges.
While the young suspects run your streets, we also found the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department does not have any task force or dedicated unit to hunt down wanted juveniles.
For a long time, police and prosecutors have been calling on the juvenile justice system to get tough.
This case shows finding suspects, even in a violent crime caught on camera with witnesses, can be very difficult.
As for the one juvenile convicted, the court tells us his sentence has not been signed and filed by a judge yet, so his sentence is not yet public. However, he is locked up.
Last year, we even tried to find the teen who’s still on the run. We went to the address listed for him on court records.
Through a window a woman said, “I don’t know anything about it and I don’t have anything to say.”
We also reached out to the victim and did not hear back.
Police body camera video shows her telling officers just after the incident, “They stole my car. I was parked at the airport. I’m OK. I tried to fight them.”