A 13-year-old is in custody after leading Mobile police on a high-speed chase that reached speeds of up to 100 miles per hour early Thursday morning.
According to police, a Mobile Police Department officer first spotted a burgundy 2007 Lexus traveling southbound in the wrong lane on Stanton Road. The officer caught up to the vehicle on Springhill Avenue and attempted to initiate a traffic stop, but the driver refused to pull over and instead accelerated, leading officers on a pursuit that reached triple-digit speeds through the area.
Officers were ultimately able to end the chase by deploying a spike strip, which disabled the vehicle. The Lexus then ran over a curb before coming to a stop, allowing police to take the driver into custody without further incident.
Police confirmed the driver was a 13-year-old juvenile. Because the driver is a minor, further details about the case, including any charges filed, are expected to be handled through Alabama’s juvenile justice system rather than released publicly in the same manner as an adult case.
High-speed pursuits involving juvenile drivers raise particular safety concerns for law enforcement, since officers must balance the need to stop a fleeing vehicle against the risks a chase poses to the young driver, other motorists and pedestrians. The use of a spike strip in this case allowed officers to bring the pursuit to an end without a collision, a tool increasingly relied on by departments like MPD to reduce the danger of prolonged high-speed chases through residential and commercial corridors.