Semaj Booker hated living in Washington.

And he desperately wanted to see his grandfather down in Texas.

So the 9-year-old Lakewood boy went to desperate lengths to get to Dallas, police say, running away from home Monday, hopping a Southwest Airlines flight from Sea-Tac Airport to Phoenix on Tuesday, then a flight to San Antonio, where he was finally taken into custody.

And all this after the 80-pound fourth-grader led police on a high-speed chase in a stolen car Sunday night, authorities said.

“He doesn’t want to live in Washington state,” said Lakewood police Lt. Dave Guttu. He’s “incredibly motivated to get to Texas.”

Semaj, who could be charged in connection with the police pursuit as early as today, was being held Tuesday night at a juvenile detention facility in San Antonio, Guttu said.

His mother, Sakinah Booker, said the boy dislikes the neighborhood where the family lives in Lakewood and is fearful of a sex offender who lives nearby.

“He does not like it here at all,” she said.

It was unclear Tuesday night how the boy managed to pass through airport security and board two flights before he was caught.

“The only thing I have to offer on that is that we’re looking into it,” said Beth Harbin, a Southwest Airlines spokeswoman.

Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin said all travelers must have a boarding pass to go through airport security checkpoints. The only exception is an escort pass, which adults can use to bring a young child or senior citizen to their flight gate.

“That young man would’ve had to have a boarding pass,” Peppin said.

Semaj’s journey began Sunday when he stole an Acura that was left running outside a neighbor’s house in Lakewood, Guttu said. An officer spotted him driving the car shortly after 7 p.m. near the intersection of Interstate 5 and Highway 512.

Police said they pursued Semaj on 512 at speeds between 80 and 90 mph until he took the exit leading to Ninth Street Southwest in Puyallup. The car’s engine blew up, and the vehicle hopped a curb and coasted into a tree, Guttu said.

Because Semaj refused to come out of the car, officers had to break a window to unlock a door. Lakewood officers took one look at the boy and recognized him as a frequent runaway, Guttu said. One of his recent runaways garnered media attention earlier this month, including a brief story on The News Tribune’s Web site.

Semaj is no stranger to car theft, Guttu said. In December, Tacoma police said they caught him after he crashed a stolen car. More recently, he took a car, drove to Seattle, then was taken into custody after he ran out of gas, said Sakinah Booker.

She believes he learned how to drive from playing video games on a PlayStation.

“He’s basically out of a booster seat,” Guttu said, adding that a police report listed Semaj as 4 feet 9 inches tall and all of 80 pounds.

Earlier, Sakinah Booker told police that she needed help with her son, and when they found him, they should take him to Remann Hall juvenile jail in Tacoma.

“I told (the officer), don’t bring him back home. … It’s too much,” she said.

After taking him to be checked for injuries at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and Health Center in Tacoma, Semaj was brought to Remann Hall, Guttu said. Officials declined to detain him because he didn’t score high enough on the facility’s risk assessment test and because of his age, said Shelly Maluo, juvenile court administrator.

“Putting a 9-year-old in our facility with our population is not a good thing,” she said.

Police then took him to a Child Protective Services facility, where he was turned away again because of his age, Guttu said.

About 11 p.m. Sunday night, Sakinah Booker took her son back. By 6 a.m. Monday, she had reported him missing again, she said. Police listed him as missing, and received a call Tuesday from a juvenile facility in San Antonio saying, “We’ve got your runaway,” Guttu said.

Officials took Semaj into custody Tuesday as he stepped off the flight from Phoenix, but Guttu said he’s not sure how they figured out what was going on. A call to San Antonio police Tuesday was not returned.

After giving officials a false name – a tactic his mother said he used on police in the Seattle and Tacoma car incidents – Semaj eventually told them his real name, Guttu said.

Fred Wist, Pierce County deputy prosecutor in charge of the juvenile unit, said he was reviewing the police reports Tuesday afternoon from the police pursuit. “It is very seldom that we see kids this young,” he said.

Sakinah Booker said she hadn’t spoken with her son since he’d reached Texas, but that she’d been told he ended up in San Antonio instead of Dallas because he boarded the wrong plane in Phoenix. She said she had hoped to soon move her four sons back to Dallas, but Semaj grew tired of waiting. She’d also said she considered sending him to live with her sister in Illinois.

When asked how he might have gotten a seat on two flights, she said, “Your guess is as good as mine. I think they just let him on.”