Runaway Boys Commit Suicide After Being Stopped By Police
A pair of runaway boys who made a suicide pact with a 12-year-old girl killed themselves Saturday after a state trooper pulled over their stolen car.
The trooper grabbed the girl from the car before she could reach the gun to complete the pact, police said. Both boys were infatuated with the girl and all three vowed to kill themselves if they were stopped by police, authorities said.
Kevin L. Hyde, 15; Joshua G. Rogers, 15; and the 12-year-old, whose identity was not released, stole a car Wednesday after getting in trouble in school earlier in the week in their hometown of Robbinsville, N.C., police said.
Hyde left his father a note reading, “Dad, I’m sorry, I got into some trouble and I had to leave. I’ve gone south.”
Police found notes written by the three stating their intention to die if caught by authorities. The youths did not give a reason for the suicide pact.
The girl’s note said Rogers was supposed to shoot her, then himself. Hyde was to shoot himself. The girl told police that “one of the boys was supposed to shoot her but neither one of the boys had the nerve to do it,” state police Sgt. Jackie Speer said.
The trio stole gas and food as they trekked through Georgia and Tennessee and brought a .22-caliber revolver along in case they had to commit suicide, said Arkansas State Police spokesman Wayne Jordan, paraphrasing comments made by the girl.
About 1:30 a.m. Saturday, a trucker notified police that a car was harassing him on Interstate 40 in eastern Arkansas, pulling in front of him and slowing down, Jordan said.
The truck pulled ahead, and eventually Trooper Freddie Hudson chased the stolen Pontiac Grand Am at speeds of up to 100 mph. The chase came to an end when the road narrowed to one westbound lane in a construction zone. The car had to slow down behind the truck that made the initial call, Jordan said.
Using a citizens band radio, the trooper instructed the trucker to stop, trapping the teenagers on the highway.
Hudson got out of his police car and heard two gunshots about five seconds apart, Jordan said.
Rogers, who was sitting in the back seat, killed himself with a shot to the head and fell across the girl, Jordan said. Hyde, who was driving, went next, shooting himself in the mouth. The gun dropped onto the floorboard and the girl could not reach it before the trooper got to her.
“She was screaming and yelling. She said she would have killed herself if she could have reached the gun before the trooper got her out of the car,” Jordan said.
The girl was being kept Saturday at a juvenile detention center in West Helena. Her parents were driving from North Carolina to get her. She will not be charged with any crime in Arkansas, Jordan said.
Authorities in North Carolina said they had not decided if the girl would face any charges there.