A 15-year-old is charged in Juvenile Court today with aggravated assault on a first responder and evading arrest after he drove a vehicle towards MNPD Canine Unit partners Saturday night on Autumn Ridge Drive.
The preliminary investigation indicates police dog Kyro and his partner, Officer Mario Diaz, were working the Street Racer Initiative in South Precinct when a gray Nissan Maxima fled from an attempted traffic stop and was later spotted in the area of Brick Church Pike.
Officer Diaz observed the three occupants of the Maxima bail from the vehicle, two of them running towards a nearby wooded area. The driver returned to the Maxima and began accelerating towards Canine Kyro and Officer Diaz, who was giving commands to stop.
Officer Diaz, in fear for his and Canine Kyro’s safety, fired upon the Maxima. The Maxima stopped. The 15-year-old driver, from Smyrna, was pulled from the vehicle. No one was injured.
Despite efforts to locate the other two occupants of the Maxima in the woods, they were not found. The Smyrna teen would not provide information on them in an interview with detectives.
The investigation remains active and ongoing.
