Man crashes stolen car into tree after fleeing police, killing girlfriend, charges say
ROSEVILLE, Minn. — A 32-year-old St. Paul man is accused of fleeing law enforcement and crashing a vehicle into a tree, killing his girlfriend of five years, who was in the passenger seat.
According to charges filed on Monday, the man and his girlfriend left the parking lot of the Cub Foods on Snelling Avenue in a Toyota Camry — which had been reported stolen — on Friday evening. When officers activated their lights, the driver started to accelerate, documents say.
One sergeant pursued the Camry at speeds over 90 mph, according to documents. Though law enforcement lost sight of the Camry, they found it again when it turned south on Griggs Street.
The driver of the Camry had driven over the roundabout on Griggs Street at Edmund Avenue and lost control, according to the charges, crashing into a tree between Edmund and Charles avenues. The 32-year-old was arrested, and there was a woman slumped over in the passenger seat.
She was pronounced dead at the hospital hours later, charges say. She would have turned 29 years old the following day.
According to documents, surveillance video from the Cub Foods parking lot shows the 32-year-old in the driver's seat of the car. In a post-Miranda interview, he said there was someone else driving the vehicle. However when the investigator replied that it was only him and his girlfriend in the car, the man stopped responding. He admitted he had taken fentanyl in the morning, charges say.
The man is charged with fleeing an officer, criminal vehicular homicide and theft of a motor vehicle. He has nine prior felony convictions, including two motor vehicle thefts, two counts of fleeing police in a motor vehicle and burglary.
