Seattle police arrest 12-year-old after woman attacked with screwdriver

Seattle police say a 12-year-old boy assaulted and robbed a woman outside an Amazon Fresh store in the Central District, striking her in the face and using a screwdriver before stealing her purse. Officers later arrested the boy, who police say is known to them from prior encounters, and recovered the weapon.

SEATTLE - A 12-year-old wearing a hot pink ski mask attacked and robbed a 43-year-old woman using a screwdriver in Seattle’s Central District, according to Seattle Police.

It happened around 6:50 p.m. on Saturday at an Amazon Fresh store. Turns out, the kid was no stranger to law enforcement.

The backstory:

According to police, the boy attacked the woman, hitting her multiple times in the face with his hands, then used a screwdriver and poked her in the face, striking her left cheek. 

They added, the 12-year-old then stole the woman’s purse, ran into the parking garage and went through it. He then went back to the woman, assaulted her again and then ran off, police said. At some point, police told FOX 13, the 12-year-old also entered a nearby Walgreens.

Seattle's Central District near site of attack

What they're saying:

"Twelve years old, oh my goodness," Kimberly Tsai said when she heard the news. "I never thought this [area] is safe, that’s why I don’t go out in the evening, I only do it [shopping] during morning, normally it’s morning time."

Tsai told FOX 13 that she regularly shops at Amazon Fresh. As a grandmother, she got emotional hearing how young the suspect is in this case.

"Oh, my goodness, how sad, it’s going to make me cry," Tsai said. "We are already in a chaos world right now and this happened."

Police said when they later found the boy, he managed to run away, but based on his age, unique clothing description and previous run-ins with police, officers recognized him and knew where he lived.

They got a search warrant for his arrest, took him into custody and found the screwdriver.

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The Source: Information in this story came from the Seattle Police Department. 

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