Bryce Friedley, 17, faces a judge in Lewis County Superior Court as co-defendant Brandon Caley, in red, awaits his turn.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The armed encounter involving a a group of high school students on foot and four males in a car near Penny Playground earlier this week related to a dispute between a 17-year-old and a 14-year-old over a girl, according to authorities.
Chehalis police didn’t know it happened until the following day and began investigating. It happened just before 3 p.m. on Wednesday near Southwest 13th Street and William Avenue.
On Thursday, police began looking for four male suspects and one of them, a 17-year-old suspect was located by the Centralia Police Department in Safeway in Centralia. Members of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office tracked down a 20-year-old suspect in Winlock.
Two men in their 20s are still outstanding.
Charging documents in the case, based on police interviews with the unspecified number of students from W.F. West High School indicate the 17-year-old and the 14-year-old had a disagreement regarding the female and had been texting each other, and the older boy allegedly said he was going to kill the younger boy.
The younger boy and a group of friends were walking near the playground on Wednesday when a vehicle ran up onto the curb and four people exited, looking for the 14-year-old, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello wrote in charging documents.
The 14-year-old however had run off and hid in the bed of a passing truck, Masiello wrote.
The students told police 20-year-old Brandon L. Caley of Winlock and one of the unknown male suspects were armed and that Caley brandished his firearm, at first.
The 17-year-old suspect didn’t have a gun, but allegedly approached one of the boys – an 18-year-old – asked him what was in his pockets and hit him in the face and took headphones from his pocket.
Yesterday, both Caley and Bryce A. Friedley, 17, of Chehalis, were charged in Lewis County Superior Court with first-degree robbery.
Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher told the judge that Friedley, because of his age and the nature of the charge was automatically charged as an adult.
The maximum penalty, if convicted, is life in prison.
Meagher asked for and the judge granted bail to be set at $100,000 for Caley and $50,000 for Friedley, noting the affidavit of probable cause for the 17-year-old included some gang overtones. The higher amount for the older suspect was requested because of previous criminal convictions.
The two suspects are brothers and Friedley was the victim of a stabbing last month in the parking lot at Wal-Mart, according to court documents in two other recent Lewis County cases.
The charging documents in the current case say that in an interview with Chehalis detective Jason Roberts, Friedley denied knowing what the detective was talking about when asked about the park incident and the headphones.
Friedley allegedly stated “they” would pay and “they” should know better and stated:
“They better all stay in their houses and keep their doors locked, that’s all I’m saying about that.”
The documents in the current case give no indication if the disagreement was related to the stabbing, and make no mention of the stabbing.
The two suspect’s arraignments are scheduled for Wednesday in Lewis County Superior Court.
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For background, read “News brief: Chehalis police seek info on incident with gun near park” from Friday November 17, 2017, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Bunch of damn punks. They wouldn’t last 10 minutes if they were running their mouths 20 years ago…they would have gotten their asses kicked the old fashioned way.