LYNNWOOD — Police arrested two teens after they were accused of attacking a man twice their age in a gas station parking lot in Lynnwood on Wednesday, causing a traumatic brain injury.
The confrontation began just before 8:15 p.m. in the parking lot of the 76 station at 19611 Alderwood Mall Parkway, according to a Lynnwood police report.
A man, 37, entered the parking lot and approached a yellow Chevy Camaro, where the two teens were. It’s unclear what led up to the attack. But minutes later, one of the teens punched the man in the face, according to police. Then the other, an 18-year-old from Monroe, reportedly struck the man, too.
The man fell to the ground. The boy who landed the first punch walked away, surveillance footage reportedly shows. But the second stomped on the man’s head while he was on the ground, police said. The two teens then left the parking lot in separate cars.
When police arrived, they found the man unresponsive in the parking lot with a puddle of blood around his head, according to court papers.
The man “sustained injuries that could cause permanent disfigurement,” or impairments of his eyes and nose, Lynnwood officer Matthew Kruse wrote in his police report.
He was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, police spokesperson Maren McKay said. At the hospital, he was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, skull fracture, an orbital fracture and a broken nose, according to police.
A gas station employee tipped off police about the first suspect’s identity. An officer in Monroe reported he’d pulled over the yellow Camaro in December, and the second suspect in the attack had been the driver.
Police arrested both suspects for investigation of first-degree assault. On Friday, the 18-year-old was in the Snohomish County Jail with bail set at $500,000.
It appeared the other teen, who was under the age of 18, had been released from the Denney Juvenile Justice Center in Everett as of Friday.
Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.
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