Afternoon carjacking leaves mayhem, multiple injuries in Minneapolis

Updated: 5:22 p.m.

Five people were injured — including two teens critically hurt — in what police say was a high speed, violent carjacking Monday afternoon in south Minneapolis.

The incident unfolded shortly after 2 p.m. as a car sped southbound on 17th Avenue, ran into a building and kept going. The vehicle turned around and rammed a Minneapolis squad car being driven by an off-duty police officer, although the officer was uninjured.

The suspect in the carjacking continued to try to escape, driving against traffic on westbound Lake Street and hitting a light pole beside the street — and even after the car he was in caught fire and police approached the damaged vehicle, said Minneapolis police spokesperson John Elder.

“This person was continuing to attempt to flee, continued to attempt to drive away, despite the fact that their car was on fire and officers were able to get here and get him extracted from the vehicle against every effort he could put forward,” Elder said.

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The exact sequence of events wasn’t immediately clear in the minutes following the crash, but Elder said that police tracking the path of the stolen car also found other people hit outside a Lake Street business.

“Two pedestrians had been hit,” Elder said. “There is major damage to a building at that location, and those two people that were juveniles. We’re identifying them as being in their teens. Each are listed in critical condition.”

Elder said that the two teen girls are expected to survive, and that the suspect was taken into custody and is listed in serious, but stable condition.

Another person inside the building at the crash is in serious but stable condition. A fifth person was hurt, but didn’t seek medical attention.

Police at the scene believe that the driver of the suspected stolen car was impaired, but Elder didn’t offer any details about the nature of the impairment. The incident remains under investigation.

MPR News reporter Matt Sepic contributed to this story.