A 12-year-old girl was arrested and booked following a series of violent crimes, according to the Tukwila Police Department (TPD).
At 6:41 p.m. Monday, officers responded to a business in the Southcenter District after receiving a report of a robbery, the TPD said. The victim at the scene said a female assaulted her and stole her phone in the bathroom before running away, police added.
The 12-year-old girl is "associated with numerous robberies and vicious assaults that have occurred over the past few months" and well known to officers, police said, adding most of the victims are older women.
The suspect has been offered resources and assistance on multiple occasions but has instead continued to escalate her behavior with each incident," the TPD said on Facebook. "The suspect is required to be under strict supervision due to her previous arrests but recently cut her ankle monitoring device off.
From Monday's incident, police said they were able to track the victim's phone to a business on the 400 block of Andover Park East in Tukwila, where "the suspect was known to hang out." She was hanging out with another female when she was spotted by officers, police said, and while officers took her into custody, she implored her friend to "assault an officer so that she could go to juvenile detention with her so they could continue to hang out."
This is on par with the suspect's previous 'no cares' attitude when contacted by officers at which times she laughed and or joked about victims crying, being injured and the emotional trauma that she had inflicted upon them," the TPD wrote on Facebook. "This is an unfortunate trend that has been growing across the region with juvenile suspects escalating their criminal behavior and expressing a lack of caring due to their belief that there is a total lack of consequences for said behavior.
Tukwila police highlighted five other incidents involving the 12-year-old girl.
Feb. 28: The suspect followed an elderly woman from a bus on the 100 block of Andover Park West and into a business, where she assaulted the victim and stole her purse. She was detained at a nearby bus stop and the victim declined to pursue charges.
March 13: The suspect followed an elderly woman out of a business on the 300 block of Strander Boulevard, knocked her down, assaulted her and attempted to steal her phone and purse. A bystander intervened and the girl ran away but was quickly found and taken into custody.
April 14: Officers were notified the suspect cut her ankle-monitoring bracelet off the day prior, then later the same day started a physical altercation with someone. She then assaulted an elderly woman near the altercation scene.
April 18: The suspect posted on social media asking people to meet her to start a large fight at the same location from the April 14 incident — a location she commonly frequents. Officers responded to the location and the suspect ran away before being caught and taken into custody.
May 22: Officers responded to a report of an assault on the 13900 block of Military Road South and were told the suspect attempted to stab another minor following a fight related to a male both were romantically involved with.