KELSEYVILLE — Lakeport Chief of Police Kevin Burke confirmed Monday that the same 14-year-old boy attacked on the Fourth of July by five to six other teens in a gang-related assault was killed in a head-on collision Friday afternoon.
Now police are waiting on the results of an out-of-county autopsy scheduled for today to determine if the injuries he suffered during the attack or the traffic accident caused his death, said Burke.
He explained that California law says that if an attack victim dies within one year of the incident, and the cause of death is related to the injuries from that attack, the perpetrator can be prosecuted for that death. That may change charges against a 16-year-old young man arrested July 4.
“We”re investigating to determine whether those charges are warranted,” said Burke.
According to the Lakeport Police Department (LPD), the teen in custody for the holiday attack is a documented Norteno gang member on juvenile probation, and was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, resisting a peace officer, criminal street gang enhancements and violation of probation.
The 14-year-old victim was one of four teens in a Silver 1989 Buick LeSabre that hit a walnut tree when its 15-year-old driver sped through a stop sign at Bell Hill Road and Renfro Drive while trying to turn left, according to a California Highway Patrol (CHP) report.
The three males in the car reportedly fled the scene, leaving a female occupant to file a collision report with responding CHP personnel. The CHP found her statement to be false during a hit-and-run investigation started Saturday evening when officers learned that two male passengers were at Sutter Lakeside Hospital for their injuries, states the release.
The 14-year-old boy was one of the two at the hospital, where the CHP report states he “later died from from internal injuries” early Sunday morning.
The 15-year-old male driver was taken into custody at his Lower Lake home, then to Juvenile Hall where he was booked on a felony hit-and-run, according to the CHP.
Burke said four LPD officers are investigating the gang-related attack, and are keeping tabs for now on the CHP”s investigation of the head-on. The young man”s autopsy today is expected to reveal whether or not the two incidents are related, and LPD and CHP officers will attend.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
