Police arrested a Minnesota woman who admitted to driving a Jeep Cherokee when it struck and killed a man on a sidewalk in south Minneapolis.
Officers said they responded to reports of a pedestrian-vehicle crash near the intersection of 17th Street East and 1st Avenue South at about 3:17 a.m. on July 9.
A criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County states police found a man “in obvious pain” lying on the sidewalk near a Jeep Cherokee. The man was taken to a hospital, where he died later that night.
The woman near the Jeep, 34-year-old Deandra Christine Sharber, told responding police that she had “pulled up on” the man to confront him over dispute over the possession of a vehicle.
Sharber had called 911 to report the dispute to police, the complaint states. During the recorded call, Sharber was told by the dispatcher to stop following the man in order to allow police to resolve the issue. A crashing sound can be heard during the call, and the call ended when Sharber stopped responding to the dispatcher.
Police said they observed that a tree trunk about 8 inches in diameter was sheared off at the base where the Jeep came to rest, and the second tree was severely damaged under the Jeep’s front bumper.
The complaint states that Sharber then told police in a Mirandized statement that she and the man had been in a relationship and remained in contact. They were having a dispute over when he would return a car she had lent him. She said she was driving around the area looking for him the night of the incident, and then followed him, at one point driving down a one-way street.
Sharber continues to admit that she initiated the confrontation with him while she remained in the driver’s seat of the Jeep and while he remained on the sidewalk. The complaint states she also admitted to driving the Jeep when it struck him.
Tell us your thoughts...