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Minneapolis police arrested three boys and three girls, ages 11 to 14, following three armed robberies Tuesday and the crash of two stolen vehicles. 

Following a late morning report of robberies on the 5100 block of 41st Av. S, the 3400 block of Bloomington Av., and near 24th St. and Pleasant Ave. S, officers pursued one vehicle onto Interstate 94, where it crashed near Cedar Avenue. The second vehicle crashed after exiting the freeway. 

At a news conference Wednesday, Police Chief Brian O’Hara said officers later recovered a third 

, which investigators believe is tied to the robberies. He said police have not found evidence to connect the six children who were arrested to the robberies.

Certain models of Kia and Hyundai vehicles are particularly vulnerable to theft because they lack immobilizers, which have been standard in the auto industry for decades. 

O’Hara said five of the children were released from the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center and the sixth, a 14-year-old girl, was hospitalized in stable condition. No other people were injured, but O’Hara said four uninvolved vehicles were struck during the crashes of the stolen Kias. 

O’Hara said it’s standard procedure to release auto theft suspects of this age. He said juvenile courts do not have many options to help children this young suspected of auto theft and other crimes. 

“It’s just someplace to place them and hold them,” O’Hara said. “To think that we can keep doing what we’re doing and expect a different result just doesn’t make sense. It is a vicious cycle that it does seem at times that the system is not prepared to deal with.”

O’Hara said police are referring the children to prosecutors for charges and that investigators are still looking for the robbery suspects who were in the abandoned vehicle.

, who’s charged with reckless driving and receiving stolen property after allegedly driving a stolen car across a north Minneapolis playground in September.

Matt Sepic

Author

Minneapolis police arrested three boys and three girls ages 11 to 14 following three armed robberies Tuesday and the crash of two stolen vehicles. 

police chief speaks in front of block wall

Children 11 to 14, arrested, released after robberies, crash of stolen Kias

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