The 15-year-old driver in Friday's double-fatal car crash in Maplewood made his first appearance Tuesday in Ramsey County Juvenile Court, according to a Ramsey County Attorney's Office spokesman.
The boy faces two counts of criminal vehicular homicide, one count of fleeing a police officer, and three counts of criminal vehicular operation, said spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein.
The crash Friday afternoon near Chamber Street and Larpenteur Avenue in Maplewood killed Marcoz Paramo, 14, and Alyjah Thomas, 15. Both were students at North High School in North St. Paul.
The boys were two of the six people riding in a car that Ramsey County sheriff's deputies suspected was stolen; it was first spotted about 3:40 p.m. when a deputy tried to stop the vehicle at N. Beebe Road and E. Holloway Avenue near the border of North St. Paul and Maplewood.
The driver fled, heading south on Beebe Road and then west on Larpenteur Avenue. Deputies lost sight of the car before it crashed, according to the sheriff's office. The badly mangled vehicle could be seen for hours afterward in a resident's front lawn at the intersection.
Three people ran from the car after the crash; two were captured a short time later. A phone call to the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office's spokesperson on Tuesday asking if the third person was captured was not returned.
Ramsey County Board Chair Toni Carter commented on the deaths at the conclusion of Tuesday's board meeting, saying the board sends its sympathies to the victim's families and to the Ramsey County deputies involved.
"Certainly, in our moment of mindfulness, I know we are thinking of them and will continue to do so as we explore and get additional information regarding that accident," she said.
