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5 teens arrested after stolen car linked to robbery crashes into SUV

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A stolen SUV used in a robbery crashed near the NoDa arts district Saturday afternoon, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officials reported.

According to authorities, officers were notified at 12:39 p.m. of a hit on the license plate of a white 2017 Ford Escape that was stolen and used in a robbery earlier in the day on The Plaza at Matheson Avenue.

Police officials said an officer saw the stolen vehicle on Sugar Creek Road and made a U-turn to pull the driver over. Once the officer made the turn, the driver of the stolen vehicle ran a red light and crashed into a Dodge Magnum with five people in it, authorities said.

According to police, five suspects jumped out of the SUV following the collision and took off running. The driver of the vehicle, a 14-year-old, was pinned inside the SUV, which caught on fire, authorities said.

"The guy that caused the accident tried to run but there was a cop behind him that got him,” witness Ingrid Garcia said.

The CMPD said two officers pulled the driver out of the burning vehicle, and he was then transported to Carolinas Medical Center with minor injuries.

“I couldn't believe it to see all this smoke that was coming out,” said a witness who didn’t want to be identified.

According to police, officers set up a perimeter around the scene and arrested the other five suspects who ran from the SUV.

One of the suspects cut himself on barbed wire fencing and was taken to CMC for treatment, police said. The remaining four suspects were uninjured.

Sources told Channel 9 that a woman and child were also injured during the crash and transported by ambulance to CMC.

Police said the SUV had been stolen from Fairvista Drive earlier in the day between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. and used as a getaway car after an armed robbery at a Rite Aid. No one was injured during the robbery, according to officials.

According to police, multiple other vehicles were broken into in the area of Fairvista Drive during the early morning hours, as well as other neighborhoods in the Highland Creek Parkway area.

Amaris Magee, 16, and Kaleek Singleton, 16, both face charges of resisting a law enforcement officer and are due to appear in court Tuesday.

(Amaris Magee/Kalik Singleton)

The other suspects, ages 14-15 years old, have been charged with armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, vehicle theft, breaking and entering into a motor vehicle, and misdemeanor larceny.

Channel 9 spoke with people in a nearby neighborhood who said unlocked cars were targeted around the same time.

In a surveillance video shared by a neighbor, someone walked up to his car door, and once the motion sensor lights turned on, he ran away.

Police are investigating whether the teens accused of stealing the SUV are also responsible for breaking into other cars.

Tara Hattenreth said the sequences happened within minutes of each other.

"Around 1:30 in the morning, everyone's surveillance cameras started dinging, and the next morning we kind of noticed that a bunch of cars on the street were hit,” Hattenreth said.

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