Five young women preparing for wedding the next day killed by speeding car
Five young women preparing for a friend’s wedding were killed when a driver fleeing police officers collided with their car, authorities said.
On Friday night, Minnesota State Troopers tried to pull over a speeding driver on Interstate-35.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety said the driver was going over 40 miles per hour over the speed limit – which would put his speed between 95 and 100 miles per hour.
‘Before the traffic stop could be attempted, the vehicle immediately exited the highway,’ the Minneapolis Police Department said in a news release. The car then ran a red light before crashing into another car carrying five women returning from a mall in Minneapolis.
The car’s driver, who has not been named by police, then fled the scene on foot into a nearby Taco Bell, where he was detained.
Medical personnel declared the five occupants of the car dead at the scene.
The victims were all members of Minnesota’s large Somali-American community, and identified as Sahra Gesaade, 20, Salma Abdikadir, 20, Sagal Hersi, 19, Siham Adam, 19, and Sabiriin Ali, 17. They were officially identified by the Minneapolis Medical Examiner’s Office on Sunday.
Their cause of death was listed as ‘multiple blunt force injuries’ from a car collision with an SUV.
Three of the women were cousins, a fourth was an extended relative, and the fifth was a close friend of the family, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.
They were struck while returning from purchasing henna and doing last-minute shopping before a friend’s wedding on Saturday.
The four older victims were college students attending the University of Minnesota, Normandale Community College, and Minneapolis Community and Technical College.
The youngest victim, Ali, had just graduated from Edina High School and was attending the University of Minnesota in the fall to study medicine.
‘These young Muslim sisters, were shining stars of hope for our future,’ the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota said in a post on Facebook. ‘Unfortunately, their lives were cut short last night by a driver evading the police.’
The Islamic Center has also organized a fundraiser for the victims’ families, which has already raised over $357,995 in donations.
The driver who collided into the young women’s car was hospitalized after being detained. His identity will be released after he is formally charged, the Minneapolis Police Department said.
Video footage from a traffic camera appears to show a driver collide with rear end of the women’s car at high speed while they crossed an intersection.
However, the footage was not officially released, but instead leaked without the permission of the victims’ families, said Minneapolis City Councilmember Jamal Osman.
In a statement published on Sunday night, Osman said that Minneapolis law enforcement promised the families that they would have an opportunity to view the footage before it was released to the public.
‘Unfortunately, not everyone agreed to allow the victims’ families to view the last moments of their loved ones’ lives first – and this horrific video is (as of today) all over social media,’ Osman said.
‘I am outraged and I am angry. And the families – they are stunned, especially given the assurances from law enforcement personnel,’ he said.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara called the leaked footage ‘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,’ O’Hara told local station Fox 9.
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