Star Tribune
Driver admits ‘jamming out’ on air guitar when he hit and killed pedestrian in Moose Lake
A northern Minnesota man said he was “jamming out a bit” playing air guitar while driving last week when he fatally struck a man who had just left a store in Moose Lake, according to a criminal complaint.
Brent J. Keranen, 21, of Pengilly, Minn., was charged in Carlton County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash Thursday near the intersection of Industrial Park Road and Jon Brown Drive that killed 61-year-old Justin McNeil of Moose Lake.
Keranen posted bond Friday night and is due back in court on Monday. A message was left with Keranen seeking his response to the allegations. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
Court records within the past two years show that Keranen was caught on Jan. 4 by a Chisago County sheriff’s deputy on Interstate 35 texting on his phone while going 82 miles per hour. He pleaded guilty and paid a $135 fine last month.
He’s also been convicted in Minnesota of traveling 95 mph in a 60-mph zone and driving an unregistered vehicle without insurance when he crashed into a FedEx truck.
According to last week’s criminal complaint:
Law enforcement responded shortly after 2 p.m. to a report of a crash and determined that Keranen was driving north on Industrial Park Road, veered onto the right shoulder and hit McNeil soon after he walked out of a nearby Dollar General store toward his home a quarter-mile away. Emergency medical personnel declared him dead at the scene.
Keranen said he was driving to his home in eastern Itasca County after working in the Twin Cities. He said he was short on sleep after staying up the night before drinking with friends.
A few hours before the crash, Keranen said, he fell asleep while driving and “struck or contacted” a state trooper’s squad vehicle while leaving the metro area, the complaint read. He said a trooper measured his blood alcohol content at 0.066%, below the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.
He said he resumed his travels after being ticketed, stopped for a 5-hour Energy shot and kept driving.
At the time of the crash, Keranen said, “he was listening to the radio when a good song began playing, prompting the defendant to play ‘air guitar’ to the song, when suddenly his air bags deployed,” the complaint continued.
He contended he didn’t know at the time that he had hit someone but later said he was “looking down and jamming out a bit, and the next thing you know, I hit somebody,” the complaint quoted him as telling law enforcement. He said his cruise control was set at 52 miles per hour in a 40-mph zone.
Law enforcement gave Keranen a roadside sobriety test, and he showed signs of impairment. A preliminary breath test at the scene measured his blood alcohol content at 0.06%.
The DFL candidate for a Roseville seat in the Minnesota House is pushing back on allegations from his Republican opponent that he doesn’t live in the district he hopes to represent.
Curtis Johnson is currently a member of the Roseville Area Schools board. He has owned a home in Little Canada since 2017, according to Ramsey County property records.
In May he filed to run for the open seat in House District 40B, saying he lived in an apartment complex less than 3 miles from his Little Canada home. The district includes parts of Roseville and Shoreview and has been represented by DFLer Jamie Becker-Finn, who isn’t seeking re-election, since 2017.
In a statement, Johnson said he and his wife decided to move to Roseville last year, but they’ve struggled to find the right house. In the meantime, he’s been renting “a Roseville apartment as my primary residence while we keep searching for a forever home.”
“My wife and our youngest child still live in the house because we didn’t want to disrupt our child’s life by moving the rest of the family into my apartment and then moving them again after we found a house in Roseville,” Johnson’s statement said.
Wikstrom released an ad Oct. 15 that accused Johnson of lying about his residency, but he has not committed to making a legal challenge. A residency challenge would be decided by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
“My confidence level is high that we have a solid case he is not a resident of the district,” Wikstrom said in an interview. He noted that Johnson’s vehicle is often at the Little Canada home and a portable storage container appeared out front days after his political ad went online.
An unlicensed driver is now charged on accusations that he was speeding and under the influence of alcohol when he set off a chain-reaction pileup on an interstate exit ramp in Minneapolis, leaving one person dead and several others injured.
Talon Covie-Cardell Walker, 29, of St. Paul, was charged late Thursday afternoon in Hennepin County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the seven-vehicle pileup about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday after exiting from eastbound Interstate 94 toward Lyndale Avenue.
Walker remains held without bail ahead of a court appearance Friday afternoon. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
A search warrant affidavit was filed in court by the State Patrol that cleared the way for Walker’s blood to be collected to measure his degree of intoxication. Results are pending. The affidavit said Walker was “pushing 100 mph when taking the ramp, [and] it appears no braking took place before the crash.”
Walker was driving without a valid license, according to the state Department of Public Safety. In late 2019, his license was suspended, then it was revoked in spring 2021, the agency said.
Court records in Minnesota show Walker has traffic convictions for careless driving and operating a motorcycle without a license. State records also show convictions for illegal weapons possession, disorderly conduct, a minor drug offense and twice for violating a court no-contact order.
Walker’s passenger, 20-year-old Taniyah Randle-Smith, was taken by ambulance to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, according to the patrol. A hospital spokeswoman said Thursday afternoon that she was in critical condition.
Killed in the crash was Natalie Gubbay, a 26-year-old SUV driver from Minneapolis, whose vehicle was struck by Walker’s. Her passenger, Molly Elizabeth Brenton, 28, of Virginia, Minn., was taken to HCMC with noncritical injuries.
A juvenile has died while in detention at the Red Wing correctional facility in southeastern Minnesota.
Officials with the Minnesota Department of Corrections said staff on Saturday found an inmate who was unresponsive. Authorities attempted life-saving measures, which were unsuccessful. Paramedics arrived and the resident was pronounced dead at the scene, said spokeswoman Shannon Loehrke.
An investigation is underway to determine how the inmate died, she added.
No information about the identify of the deceased was released.
The Red Wing facility has a capacity of 88 inmates.
