BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — The suspect who alluded multiple law enforcement agencies on a chase that raced through Brooklyn Center Thursday night has been charged.
A criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court on Friday says that prosecutors have charged 27-year-old Shawn Franklin Sunt of Minneapolis with first-degree aggravated robbery.
Brooklyn Center police said troopers from the Minnesota State Patrol entered the city chasing a stolen Ford Fusion just before 9:15 p.m. Thursday near Highway 252 and I-694. Officers from Brooklyn Center weren't part of the chase, officials said, but it spanned multiple highways before Sunt headed for city streets.
Troopers stopped chasing the fleeing vehicle once it entered city streets, but officers said they spotted the vehicle several times driving "erratically and dangerously," speeding into oncoming traffic and nearly crashing into a Hennepin County Deputy's car.
Eventually, police were able to use highway cameras to track the vehicle as it exited onto Brooklyn Boulevard near Lilac Drive. When officers checked the area, they said Troopers had found the vehicle empty near 50th Avenue North and Lilac Drive.
While police were setting up a perimeter around the vehicle, emergency dispatchers saw the driver on highway cameras heading southwest. While dispatchers were watching, officials said they allegedly saw Hunt carjack another vehicle.
Police said they rushed to the area of 47th Avenue North and Drew Avenue North, near where the carjacking happened and a few blocks from where police found the driver's original vehicle.
A Hennepin County deputy intercepted and used a PIT maneuver on Hunt as they drove in a carjacked vehicle to the back of the Ryan Creek Apartments in the 3500 block of 47th Avenue North.
Officials said the driver got stuck in a snow bank and refused to cooperate with officers. Police fired two less-lethal 40mm foam rounds into the driver's side window in an attempt to talk to Hunt, according to information provided to the media.
Soon after the rounds were fired, police said Hunt opened the driver's side door and surrendered. Police told KARE 11 the driver was taken into police custody without further incident.
Officers said they found a replica firearm in the backseat of the carjacked vehicle. Police said no one was injured during the Thursday night incident.
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