MOUNDS VIEW, Minn. — A 62-year-old north metro man is charged with criminal vehicular homicide and leaving the scene after police say he struck and killed a woman as she worked on her lawn in Mounds View.
The criminal complaint filed against 62-year-old Donald Jerome Harris accuses him of driving recklessly before hitting and killing the woman on the 8200 block of Long Lake Road, and then speeding away without stopping.
Officers responded to the scene just after 1:15 p.m. Monday and found the victim, identified by authorities only as MP, laying in the road with severe injuries and no pulse. A witness who had stopped told police that the suspect vehicle was speeding southbound on Long Lake Road behind her, then passed in the parking lane where MP was doing yard work and struck her, never even slowing down.
She later identified the suspect vehicle, a black Ford Escape registered to the defendant Donald Jerome Harris.
Multiple other drivers called 911 after seeing the vehicle speeding, swerving "all over the road" and driving erratically.
The Ford Escape was soon located in a ditch by police in Spring Lake Park after it had been involved in another crash on Highway 10 near the junction with Cottagewood Terrace. The driver was soon identified as Harris. Witnesses on the scene who helped the defendant from the heavily damaged vehicle told officers he was holding a couple of small bottles of alcohol in his hand.
Investigators say the SUV had a shattered windshield with an obvious point of impact, and was covered with blood spatter. Inside the vehicle, police recovered a baggie of suspected cocaine hidden inside a pack of cigarettes.
If convicted, Donald Jerome Harris faces a possible 10-year prison sentence on each of two criminal counts.
