Harger: WA’s ‘criminal support system’ keeps releasing the same violent teens
Dec 8, 2025, 7:59 AM | Updated: 1:51 pm
Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders posted something on Facebook this weekend that sums it up perfectly: “A murder suspect let out of jail now shooting at police from a stolen vehicle in a pursuit 10 months later is a headline that can easily sum up Washington’s criminal support system.”
Criminal support system. Not criminal justice system.
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Here’s what happened
A 16-year-old boy was involved in a prison riot at King County’s Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center on Feb. 14. He allegedly barricaded a classroom door with other juveniles and punched three detention officers.
He was released. Days after a prison riot.
Eight days later, on Feb. 22, he allegedly shot and killed 18-year-old Messiah Washington in a Tacoma apartment elevator. Surveillance video shows him firing from just feet away. Twenty-one bullet holes in the victim’s body.
Police identified him early, but couldn’t find him for months. This past Saturday, they spotted him in a stolen Dodge Durango on I-5. Someone in the vehicle fired at officers during a chase. Bullets hit another driver’s car. Six people ran when police stopped the SUV. Four were caught, including the 16-year-old.
The boy won’t face a prison riot charge because Governor Ferguson signed a bill in April making prison riot charges apply only to adults. So the riot eight days before allegedly murdering someone just disappears.
Another 15-year-old with 29 prior arrests led three separate high-speed chases in one weekend. Released each time without booking.
The pattern is relentless. A 17-year-old punches an 80-year-old man on the Ballard Bridge while being filmed. Released. A teenage girl caught spray-painting, paint still on her hands. Released. Teens involved in car thefts and assaults in Tukwila. Released.
After this weekend’s chase, prosecutors asked that all four teens be held. Two have already been released to electronic home monitoring. Parents argued their children didn’t know the SUV was stolen, and couldn’t escape during the shooting and chase.
“She just caught up as a child,” one parent told the judge. “Her coming home, this will never happen.”
The system released a teen after a prison riot. Couldn’t find him for months while he was wanted for murder. May now release his alleged accomplices to home monitoring. What is it protecting? Who is it serving?
Not Messiah Washington. Not the driver whose car took bullets on I-5. Not the detention officers who were assaulted. Not the communities living with this.
You can’t rehabilitate someone who never faces a first consequence. Sanders called it a criminal support system. When you support the wrong people at the expense of victims and safety, the results are predictable. We’re seeing them.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
