Terrifying moments as a woman walks us through a violent carjacking in Tallahassee. According to Tallahassee Police, that carjacking was committed by four teens last week, the youngest being 13 years old.
The woman involved in this carjacking said she is terrified after what happened to her and believes something needs to be done about the violent youth in our community.
"I thought I was doing a good deed. I'm a mom myself, they did look young, and you know I was like alright I'll give them a ride home like I didn't really think anything else about it," said the victim.
A woman was trying to give four teenagers a ride home last Wednesday night from the Target off West Tennessee Street.
The teenagers told her to drive to the Griffin Heights Apartments and the Springfield Apartments about mile away. Once she got there, they attacked her.
"The other one like wrapped around my head, my face and my head, and grabbed me and pulled my head back like I went kind of into my seat and the other ones at this point had already opened the car doors and they all just started punching me in my head," the victim explained.
They dragged her out of the car and took off in her vehicle. Police said they found the car in Gulf County with damages to the hood and motor. As of now, only one of the teenagers are in custody.
This is the second carjacking that has happened in Tallahassee recently. Four teenagers ages 13 to 15 attacked a Tallahassee memorial Healthcare worker as she left the parking lot on January 19.
Tallahassee Police Department Detective Michael Combs said these two incidents are unrelated and this was simply an unfortunate crime of opportunity but adds they're working to help young people stay out of trouble through outreach.
"We do our best to utilize our services, our initiatives here at the department as well as the community, thereby in helping us out with getting these teens involved in those different things to help them and show them a better life," said Combs.
One of the groups working in the community to end violence is the Respect Yourself Crime Prevention Task Force. Its goal is to connect resources like mental health care, reading programs and job assistance, directly into communities who need them.
Board member Thaddeus Bruce said getting everyone involved in this outreach is vital to curbing violence.
"This city is all of our thing. The crime prevention, the gun violence, it's all something that all of us need to address and not just well I've got this, or she's got this, but come together and being able to do that together," said Bruce.
The victim of the latest carjacking said that even though these teenagers are still kids, they're doing adult crimes and believes there needs to be harsher punishments for them and their parents.
