Detective: Teen gangs more volatile, violent

Caleb W. Johnson, the only adult charged in the Huber Heights armed robbery, was arraigned by video camera last week.

Caleb W. Johnson, the only adult charged in the Huber Heights armed robbery, was arraigned by video camera last week.

Seven teens accused of robbing a Huber Heights cell phone store with guns in broad daylight is the latest example of juvenile gangs committing increasingly brazen crimes, a local sheriff’s investigator says.

“It’s getting bad,” said Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office detective Brian Shiverdecker, who has tracked area youth gangs since 2009. “Juveniles are getting more volatile, more violent as they come up.”

The seven charged suspects — including two 15-year-olds — belong to a pair of gangs known as Uptown and 2Hunnid, Shiverdecker said. He estimated that 100 local youth belong to six to eight gangs in the region.

Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer wants tougher sanctions against juveniles who commit serious crimes.

He said a 16-year-old charged in the Huber Heights robbery was previously convicted for being part of a group that stole a woman’s car in April 2016 and drove more than a mile with her clinging on the hood.

Others in the two gangs are suspected in crimes involving stolen guns, cell phones and carjackings, according to Plummer and Shiverdecker.

“These are not kids anymore and (courts) treat them like little, innocent kids,” Plummer said.

See Sunday’s Dayton Daily News for an in-depth look at teens in trouble and local gangs.

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