A Coon Rapids man has been charged in a Tuesday afternoon hit-and-run crash that left a woman dead in Mounds View.
Donald Jerome Harris, 62, faces two counts of criminal vehicular homicide, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court. No attorney was listed for Harris in court documents.
Mounds View police responded shortly after 1:15 p.m. Tuesday to the 8200 block of Long Lake Road, where officers found the badly mangled body of a woman identified in court documents by the initials “MP,” who witnesses said had been struck by a motorist in a dark SUV, according to the complaint against Harris. MP was declared dead at the scene.
One witness told investigators she was driving south on Long Lake Road when the driver of the SUV passed her at a high rate of speed in the no-passing zone, striking MP, who was doing yard work on the side of the road, the complaint said.
The witness told police “the suspect never slowed down, not even after hitting the victim,” according to the complaint.
Other motorists reported seeing the same black SUV with a smashed windshield as it proceeded erratically onto Mounds View Boulevard and into the adjacent city of Spring Lake Park, where the driver crashed into the ditch at County Road 10 and Cottagewood Terrace, the complaint said.
Spring Lake Park police responded to the scene of that crash, where they identified Harris as the driver and owner of the vehicle, the complaint said.
Investigators found blood and hair embedded in the broken windshield of Harris’ black Ford Escape, along with a pair of small alcohol bottles and a baggie of suspected cocaine stashed in a cigarette pack, according to the complaint.
Harris appeared to be impaired, but his blood-alcohol concentration was 0.00 when he was given a breath test, the complaint said. A sample of his blood was collected for further testing.
