The unlicensed driver who hit and killed a woman along a street in Blaine told police that he thought he hit either a dog or a sign and not a person before leaving the scene, according to one filed on Wednesday Complaint.
John R. Jones, 31, was charged with criminal vehicle homicide by Anoka County District Court in connection with the hit and run accident on Monday afternoon that killed 56-year-old Bridget O’Keefe Dunn, who was walking her dog near her Home when she was hit by the car along NE. 109th Avenue near NE. Flanders court.
Jones appeared in court Wednesday morning and remains in jail on bail of $ 300,000. Court records don’t list a lawyer for him.
He drove that afternoon even though his driver’s license was revoked, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said.
Dunn owned the Body Sense Pilates and Wellness Studio, where numerous guests stopped by to mourn and share stories.
Dunn was a Pilates instructor at Life Time before opening the studio three years ago, a dream she had long had, said instructor Gina Brown. Many of her clients followed her from Life Time.
“She was the wildest friend with the kindest heart,” said Brown. “She didn’t see people as dollar signs. She saw them as individuals and gave them what they needed physically, mentally and emotionally. She changed many lives here. She will be missed forever.”
According to the complaint:
Witnesses at the scene told police that at the time his car hit Dunn walking on the north edge of the road, the driver was “driving erratically on 109th,” the court record said. The driver stopped after about 100 meters and then fled west on 109th.
Officers used license plates and other officers to find Jones at his home less than 40 minutes later, about 4 miles east of the crash site, where they were speaking to his girlfriend.
She showed them the car with the hood open and the driver’s side on a jack. It leaked fluid and had a missing driver’s side mirror, a broken headlight, a damaged front bumper and a “fender pushed so far back” [that] the driver’s door was unusable, “it said in the complaint.
The friend said Jones told her he hit a dog or a shield and shouldn’t tell anyone about what happened.
Law enforcement then spoke to Jones and he stood by what he told his girlfriend. He said the crash happened while he was out to do an errand. Instead of stopping after the collision, he said he put the car in the garage to assess the damage.
Star Tribune writer Tim Harlow contributed to this report. Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
