Police Ask for Adult ChargesJuvenile Offenders - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

Fargo police say they're taking a strong stance when it comes to the the string of juveniles arrested in armed robberies.  
The latest left a boy under eighteen in custody, charged with holding up a South Fargo convenience store clerk at knife point last week. Police say two robbers came into the Rayon Market on September Eleventh, demanded money and showed a knife. They say they've come close to an arrest on the other suspect, but won't say whether that person is under eighteen or not.

Convenience store workers say they strongly agree that children need to be tried as adults in armed holdups and other violent crimes. 

"Yes," says Marley Sarhegyi after a pause to consider whether she'd support adult charges. The Bjornson's Gas Station clerk just started her employment at the downtown area gas station in June, weeks before the string of armed robberies began. She agrees she used to not worry about groups of kids coming in while she was working her after-dark shift alone, but now, that's not the case. "If it was an armed robbery, or something like it."

The previous juvenile arrests were on children seventeen, seventeen and seventeen, and one seventeen year old arrested for being the gunman in one robbery was later found to be the getaway driver in a separate incident.

"You know what you're doing at the age of fifteen," says Sarhegyi. "I knew what I was doing at fifteen, and it sure wasn't an armed robbery."

Police say they're recommending that the latest boy they've arrested be charged in adult court with the crime.  
This is the fourth such recommendation they've made against a juvenile in the past month or so.
The prior three arrests involved juveniles allegedly holding up a different convenience store and a restaurant at gunpoint, all within the past month or so.
"I think it's not so much a new stance as a strong stance," says Lt. Joel Vettel. "We believe the public supports us in being tough on armed robbery, no matter who's committing it. We've made that a priority."

North Dakota law allows for children as young as fourteen to be tried as adults in serious and violent crimes -- if the court finds they're not amenable to treatment.