Karl Etters

Democrat staff writer

Four speeding teens led Tallahassee Police around the city’s post-Hurricane Hermine streets after they held two people up at gunpoint.

Dean Sapp, Quindarius Smith, Davarius Roberts, all 17, and Tarae Thompson, 16, face charges of carjacking and armed robbery. Roberts and Sapp also face weapons charges.

Court records say around 2:15 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 4., a man was robbed of his cellphone at gunpoint while he stood outside his Fred George Road apartment smoking a cigarette. The man told police one person jammed a gun into his back, but he saw four leave the scene.

About an hour later, a woman at an apartment complex 1.7 miles away reported her car had been stolen after she was forced to the ground at gunpoint.

She gave the four people the keys to her Kia Soul and they drove off.

Within moments, police were following the stolen car and a Toyota Corolla, which seemed to be traveling with it. When officers activated sirens and began pursuing the Corolla, it zipped onto Capital Circle Northeast at speeds of more than 70 mph.

When it turned west onto Mahan Drive, speeds reached 90 mph on the empty streets before the driver turned, traveling on the wrong side of the road.

The driver then turned onto Magnolia Drive, then west onto Park Avenue before officers spun the car out into a tree.

Sapp, the driver, and Thompson were taken into custody. Police found a stolen firearm in the center console of the car.

Meanwhile, police pursued the stolen Kia at speeds up to 100 mph on Capital Circle Northeast, where it ran traffic lights at Raymond Diehl Road and Market Street.

Traveling at speeds over 85 mph, the car turned onto Timberlane Road and crashed through barricades and police tape marking off hurricane damage along the road.

Officers chased the car onto Meridian Road where it sped around a utility truck into the oncoming lane and crossed Interstate 10.

The driver tried to turn onto a side street but crashed into a large tree. Smith and Roberts fled on foot but were tracked down by a police dog. All four are being held at the Leon County Jail on $50,000 bond.

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.