Police looking for masked man following death during chase of stolen truck
Investigators are asking the public for help identifying a masked man, apparently seen in surveillance video connected with a fatal crash during an unusual police pursuit on Tuesday.
Brooklyn Park police spotted a stolen truck in a Hy-Vee grocery store parking lot that morning, but the truck drove out of the lot, through a ditch and onto nearby Highway 610 — losing a reportedly stolen construction trailer along the way. Police initially let the driver go.
But hundreds of feet of highway fencing snagged on the stolen truck, which dragged the metal mesh for miles down the freeway and onto Highway 252. Police resumed their pursuit, because of the danger the fencing posed to other drivers and pedestrians.
At about 66th Avenue, the fencing struck a passing car, which crashed into a light pole and killed the 75-year-old man driving. Police identified him as Judd Roger Anderson, of Brooklyn Center.
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The crash tore the fencing loose from the truck, which fled to Interstate 694, went down Highway 100, got off on France Avenue on the southern edge of Brooklyn Center and disappeared.
Police are still looking for the truck, a blue, 2007 Ford F-250, with Minnesota license MJW 169.
But the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has also released what appears to be a still from surveillance video, showing a man in jeans, a gray jacket and a gray and white cap, his face covered by a bandana. Authorities are not calling him a suspect, but say he may have information about the incident, and are hoping someone can tell investigators who he is.
They’re asking anyone with information about him or the whereabouts of the truck to call 877-996-6222.