Two Arrested After Pursuit Involving AMBER Alert For Two Young Children In Stolen Car

Two Oregon residents are behind bars in Central Washington after allegedly leading police on a vehicle pursuit in a stolen car with two young children who were in their custody illegally.

The Washington State Patrol (WSP) says it unfolded at around 2 a.m. on Tuesday after troopers were contacted by police in Oregon about a stolen vehicle associated with an AMBER Alert out of Southwest Portland.

Troopers reportedly spotted the stolen vehicle near a rest area on Interstate-90 (I-90) about nine miles east of George a few minutes later, and attempted a traffic stop but the driver fled.

A pursuit was initiated and continued for approximately 17 miles in the westbound lanes of I-90 until the stolen vehicle exited onto Silica Road where the chase was extended for another two miles before a Pursuit Immobilization Technique (PIT) maneuver was utilized to disable the suspect's vehicle and box them in.

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WSP spokesperson, Trooper Jeremy Weber, says it was determined the maneuver was safe to execute because the speeds involved in the pursuit had slowed considerably once the suspect's car exited the freeway.

"We're very familiar with our PIT operations. We know that if this had happened at freeway speeds it would have created a lot more danger. Our policy actually authorizes us to do a PIT maneuver without supervisor approval at speeds under 40 miles per hour. When our trooper performed the maneuver, it was at a speed of 34 miles per hour, and our statistics say that performing a PIT at that speed is not as dangerous as what could have potentially happened to those kids if the pursuit was allowed to continue. So we always have to go with the lesser of both concerns at the time in a situation like that, and that's probably what was going through the trooper's mind."

After successfully disabling the suspect's vehicle, the driver, 29-year-old Adan Osman-Abdi, was removed from the car by troopers without incident and placed under arrest.

The female passenger and the mother of the children wanted in connection to the AMBER Alert, 26-year-old Trayviana Shoulders, reportedly crawled into the backseat of the vehicle and refused troopers' orders to exit, so Weber says the rear window had to be broken in order to remove her and place her under arrest.

Once the two suspects were in police custody, Weber says the two children, ages two and three, were then taken from the vehicle's backseat and placed in the care of Trooper Kevin Monje, who had performed the PIT maneuver that eventually led to their safe retrieval.

"Our trooper came in there and handled himself very professionally. When the kids came out of the vehicle, he said 'it's okay, I've got you but I know it's scary right now.'" Then the trooper went to his car and - a while back this girl from Waterville had done a teddy bear drive and donated all of these teddy bears, so the trooper still had some of those teddy bears in his patrol car and he went up there and gave each of the kids a teddy bear. They were really hugging on him and it was kind of a happy ending for sure, considering what might have been."

The children were later placed in protective custody, while Osman-Abdi was booked into the Grant County Jail on suspicion of felony eluding and taking a motor vehicle without permission. Shoulders was also jailed for violation of a court order out of Oregon, as well as other charges which are pending.

The WSP received assistance from deputies with the Grant County Sheriff's Office and officers from the Moses Lake Police Department.