South Minneapolis crash: Stolen car hits state trooper at 80 mph, slams into home

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – A high-speed crash involving a stolen car and a state trooper’s squad car sent the patrol car into a Minneapolis home, leaving several people in the hospital.

How the crash unfolded in south Minneapolis

What we know:

Investigators say the crash happened at the intersection of West 46th Street and Aldrich Avenue South in south Minneapolis, where a stolen vehicle slammed into a state trooper’s squad car at nearly 80 mph. The impact sent the squad car crashing into a home, leaving debris scattered across the yard and causing major damage to the house.

Tom Abresch was inside his home Friday night, just falling asleep, when the squad car came crashing in. “I was just laying right by that second window, and I just laid down, and all sudden, it went boom. My ears just popped. I mean, the compression from the car hitting us, and I thought we were being attacked,” said Abresch.

The crash left the front of the squad car stuck underneath part of the house. Abresch described the aftermath, saying, “It looks like over my whole porch, half the home, is gonna have to be taken down and be rebuilt.”

Police say the trooper had to be extricated from the vehicle and was taken to the hospital, along with passengers from the stolen car. All three people in the suspect’s car suffered serious injuries, as did the trooper.

The moments leading up to the crash

What we know:

Investigators say the incident started around 10:45 p.m. in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood, when a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy spotted a stolen Hyundai. The deputy tried to stop the driver but called off the pursuit after losing sight of the vehicle.

A state patrol helicopter then tracked the suspect’s car from above. “I looked out the back window, and the first thing that I did see is a helicopter was right above us,” said Abresch.

Police say the driver was going recklessly and didn’t have headlights on. The driver blew through a stop sign at 80 miles an hour, crashing into the trooper’s squad car and sending it into Abresch’s house.

The 19-year-old driver tried to run but was quickly taken into custody. “There’s three people, and one of them had taken off and ran around the back of our building, ran all the way down,” said Abresch.