West Des Moines Juvenile, 15, Charged After Allegedly Displaying Knife

A 14-year-old Valley Southwoods student was charged with  assault with intent, an aggravated misdemeanor, early Wednesday morning after he reportedly displayed a knife at a man who interrupted him while he reportedly was going through the glove box of a vehicle in the parking lot of an apartment complex at 1800 Grand Ave.

According to Officer Jeremy Kemmer’s report, the victim and the suspect, who was captured by police about an hour after the encounter, gave different versions of what happened.

The victim said he looked outside his kitchen window about 2:45 a.m. and observed several male subjects, some of them with skateboards, standing around his truck and the vehicle parked next to his, so he went outside to investigate, according to the police report.

He said that after the suspect displayed the knife, which reportedly had a 5-inch blade, he and his group ran away. They were located about an hour later in the 1200 block of Walnut Street and the suspect was placed under arrest. Police found the knife in the pocket of the juvenile’s shorts.

The suspect reportedly told police that “he never showed the victim the blade” at the beginning of the encounter, and “only did so after the victim told him he was going to kill him.”

The resident who owned the vehicle the suspect allegedly had rifled said nothing was missing and was not interested in pursuing charges, according to the report.