A 17-year-old boy is facing four charges after prosecutors say detectives linked him to an armed carjacking in Roxbury by spotting distinctive tattoos on both of his arms during a review of surveillance footage. The teenager was ordered held pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Thursday, and his name has not been released because of his age.
According to The Boston Globe, the teen was linked to the October 29 incident through images captured by the Genetec surveillance system, officials said. He is charged as a juvenile with firearm-armed carjacking, armed and masked robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, and vandalizing property, with the charges stemming from the Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden's office's account of that day's events. A Boston Juvenile Court judge ordered him held, with the dangerousness hearing now set for November 12.
Masked Men With Handguns Confront Driver Near MLK Boulevard
Prosecutors say a man was driving near the intersection of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Walnut Avenue when two masked individuals armed with handguns jumped in front of his vehicle. The teenager allegedly pulled the driver out of the car; prosecutors said the driver was not physically harmed in the encounter. Inside the stolen vehicle were two cellphones and $600 in cash, according to prosecutors.
The stolen car arrived in the neighborhood around 12:41 p.m. that day, the report notes. Two suspects then stepped out of the vehicle, smashed the cellphones near a dumpster, and climbed into a waiting blue Honda Civic before driving away, per the same account.
GPS Data and Security Cameras Narrow the Search
Boston police tracked the abandoned vehicle using GPS data pulled from one of the smashed cellphones, which led officers to find the car unoccupied on Roxbury Street. From there, detectives tracked the Honda Civic itself to a parking lot on Centre Street, where security footage showed the two suspects entering an apartment building, the station's report states.
It was in reviewing that footage that investigators zeroed in on the identifying detail that ultimately led to an arrest. The Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden's office wrote that “one of the two was still masked, but distinctive tattoos were visible on both of his arms. Detectives identified the juvenile from the arm tattoos.” Suffolk prosecutors said the investigation remains ongoing.
What the Charges Could Mean
Massachusetts's motor-vehicle-theft statute specifies that a person who commits the offense described in the law while armed with a dangerous weapon may face up to 20 years in state prison, or a jail or house-of-correction term of one to two and a half years plus a fine between $5 and $15,000, according to Mass.gov. Separately, the state's dangerousness statute allows the Commonwealth to move for pretrial detention or release on conditions for certain qualifying felony offenses, per Mass.gov, though that provision alone does not indicate how the law will apply in this particular case.
For now, the teenager remains held as he awaits Thursday's dangerousness hearing in Boston Juvenile Court. Suffolk prosecutors have not disclosed the outcome of that hearing, and the broader investigation into the carjacking continues.
