Star Tribune
Bloomington police looking for driver who caused collision, leaving Uber passenger gravely injured
Police are looking for the car and the driver who caused a high-speed hit-and-run crash in Bloomington that left an Uber passenger in the other vehicle with little chance of surviving his injuries.
The collision occurred about 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 13 at the intersection of E. 94th Street and S. 12th Avenue, according to police.
Based on vehicle parts left behind at the crash scene, police in a filing Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court described the vehicle they are trying to find as a dark gray Infiniti G35, model year ranging from 2006 to 2009.
Along with damage to the car’s front end on the passenger side, police added that its muffler was especially loud.
Severely injured in the other car was Kelvin S. Conteh, 49, of Bloomington, according to the court filing from police asking a judge to allow them to gather cellular data in the vicinity of the crash scene.
Conteh remains in critical condition at HCMC, a hospital spokeswoman said. He has “a broken neck, no brain activity and is not expected to live,” the court filing read.
According to the search warrant affidavit:
Officers arrived to find Conteh, who was getting a ride to the Walmart in Bloomington, unconscious in the back seat of the Uber driver’s car with life-threatening injuries.
The Uber driver was heading north on 12th, entered the intersection with 94th having the right of way and was hit on the rear passenger side by the Infiniti, whose driver was speeding without headlights illuminated and failed to observe the stop sign.
The Infiniti left behind part of a bumper and headlight assembly before leaving the scene.
Officers followed a trail of fluid from the Infiniti to a home in the 9500 block of S. Oakland Avenue, where the car stopped. A residential camera captured the driver inspecting the damage, but darkness made it impossible to make out the suspect.
The camera did reveal another vehicle arriving at the same address before both drivers left 30 seconds later.
Police put photos of a car of the same make, model and color on social media and asked for the public’s help in finding the vehicle and the driver. The posting said tips can be called in to Bloomington police at 952-563-4900.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
