Video shows car slamming into SUV, killing 5 Minnesota women
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Harrowing video captured the moment a speeding SUV in Minneapolis slammed into a car after running a red light — killing five young women hours before their friend’s wedding.
The short clip circulating online shows the vehicle carrying Sabiriin Ali, 17, Sahra Gesaade, 20, Salma Abdikadir, 20, Sagal Hersi, 19, and Siham Adam, 19, getting broadsided by the SUV, which ran the red light at Lake Street on Friday night.
The young victims, who were on their way home from a mall, all died at the scene after getting henna applied and doing some shopping ahead of their pal’s Saturday nuptials
The driver, whom sources identified to the Star Tribune as Derrick John Thompson, 27, was allegedly going more than 40 mph above the posted speed limit of 55 mph on Interstate 35W before he exited the highway and crashed into the SUV, police said.
Thompson tried to flee on foot but was later arrested. He was taken to a hospital and tested for drugs and alcohol, police said.
He is the son of former state rep. John Thompson, who did not immediately return messages from the Star Tribune seeking comment.
Thompson’s license was reinstated in March after he had multiple convictions for driving with a revoked or suspended license, the paper reported, citing police records.
Police sources told the Daily Mail he is expected to be released from the hospital and booked into custody on Monday.
Services for the victims are planned for 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center, 8201 Park Ave. S., in Bloomington. They will later be buried at the Garden of Eden Cemetery in Burnsville, the Star Tribune reported.
Ali, of Bloomington, was a recent Edina High School graduate who planned to study at the University of Minnesota, according to the outlet.
Gesaade, of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, was a third-year student at the university’s Rochester campus; Abdikadir, of St. Louis Park, was a second-year student at Normandale Community College; Hersi, of Minneapolis, studied at Minneapolis Community and Technical College; and Adam, 19, also of Minneapolis, was a student at the University of Minnesota, according to the report.
“These young Muslim sisters, were shining stars of hope for our future,” the Dar Al-Farooq center, which the five attended, said in a statement.
“They weren’t doing anything wrong,” the center’s leader, Khalid Omar, told the newspaper. “They were just getting ready for their friend’s wedding.”
Meanwhile, authorities said they are investigating how the video of the crash has been leaked online.
“I am outraged and I am angry. And the families – they are stunned,” Councilman Jamal Osman of the 6th Ward said in a statement Sunday night, Fox 9 reported.
He said the clip was posted “despite senior law enforcement members giving me direct assurances that this video would not be released until AFTER the families had the chance to view it.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the leak of the video, which he identified as Metro Transit surveillance footage, was “concerning.”
“We do not know who shared the Metro Transit surveillance video to be posted online, but we will conduct an internal review along with Metro Transit PD to try to determine the source,” he said, according to Fox 9.
“I will also review and consider policy changes to limit how video of evidentiary value may be received from an outside agency by members of the MPD,” he said.
The chief added that he was unaware of which senior law enforcement members would have assured Osman that family members would see the video before the public.
“The only family arrangements the MPD is aware of concerned the viewing of dashcam video from the (Minnesota State Patrol) — not Metro Transit surveillance video,” O’Hara said, according to the outlet.
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