A 17-year-old is charged with dragging a young woman with a vehicle during a dispute in South St. Paul, causing a brain injury.
The victim’s mother reported last week that she was doing better, though “we still have a long road ahead of us,” according to a statement shared by police on her behalf.
South St. Paul officers responded at 12:13 a.m. on Nov. 17 on a report of a woman who was severely injured and who’d been dragged by a vehicle. She was unconscious in the middle of Third Avenue South, south of Southview Boulevard.
The victim’s boyfriend reported she’d gone outside to talk to someone. He heard arguing and tires squealing, saw her hanging onto the car and ran to help her.
Police were later told that the woman “met an unknown person to buy a ‘cart,’” said a juvenile petition against the 17-year-old.
“Cart” is short for “cartridge” and it was for THC oil, according to South St. Paul Police Chief Brian Wicke. Such a cartridge is used in a vaping device.
The woman walked into the street to meet the seller and soon after “they began to raise their voices as if they were arguing,” the petition said. A witness heard her say, “What do you mean that’s not enough?”
Video surveillance from a nearby home showed the woman standing at the driver’s side window of a sedan stopped in the street. “The vehicle accelerates, causing the tires to spin and squeal and the engine to rev up,” the petition said. “The suspect vehicle then drove away at a high rate of speed, dragging victim alongside the vehicle.”
The length of the skid mark from the vehicle accelerating was measured at 23 feet.
Police collected and reviewed surveillance footage, and followed the vehicle’s path to a gas station. The driver got out to pump gas and law enforcement took a screenshot of him from the video.
The photo was sent to St. Paul police, who named the suspect as a 17-year-old from St. Paul who’d been recently arrested as the driver of a vehicle that had been stolen at gunpoint, the petition said.
Police also identified the license plate, which showed the vehicle’s registered owner lives in St. Paul and is a relative of the 17-year-old.
Police went to the teen’s high school Nov. 24. He was found with a “cart” that was the same brand as the cart found near the injured woman in the street.
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The teen’s grandmother declined to allow police to take a statement from him.
The Dakota County Attorney’s Office charged him with criminal vehicular operation, saying he drove in “a grossly negligent manner” resulting in great bodily harm.
The victim underwent surgery that involved a portion of her skull being removed. Her mother said in last week’s statement that she’d been moved to the hospital’s rehabilitation unit, from which she would be able to go home.
“Everyone is so impressed and inspired by how well she’s doing,” the statement said. “The community support has been instrumental.”
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