The Crookston Police Department has released the name of the man killed Saturday afternoon when a suspect in a property damage complaint fled police by stealing a police vehicle and crashed it into a pickup truck.
The driver of the Chevy S-10 pickup, Eddie Robert Briggs, 78, Thief River Falls, was fatally injured in the crash and has been transported to the Ramsey County Medical Examiners Office in St. Paul for an autopsy. The pickup's passenger, Briggs' wife, Patricia Johnette Briggs, 57, Thief River Falls, was in fair condition Sunday in Crookston's Riverview Hospital.
The Crookston Police Department released more details Sunday about the incident leading up to the crash, including an additional arrest.
According to the Police Department, officers responded about 2 p.m. Saturday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars after a complaint that two men were pounding on a car. The reporting parties said they were confronted by the two men on Market Street in the area behind Crooks Club Bar and then again in the area by the VFW. One suspect, Carlos Romero Jr., 42, Crookston, was threatening them and claiming they owed him money. According to the report, Romero and the second suspect, Ricardo Mello, 23, Crookston, kicked their vehicle, causing damage to the fender.
When officers attempted to make contact with the two suspects, Romero stopped but Mello ignored their verbal commands and walked into Crooks Club Bar on Main Street.
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Crookston Police Chief Tim Motherway said that two officers confronted Mello, who fought with the officers and was Maced and Tasered before stealing a Crookston police squad car. Mello drove the squad car at a high rate of speed about five blocks before losing control at South Main and old Highway 75, striking the driver's side door of the pickup driven by Briggs.
Mello first was taken to Riverview by a passerby, then to Altru Hospital in Grand Forks. About 5 p.m. Sunday, Mello was released from Altru and transported to the Northwest Regional Correction Center in Crookston, where he was booked on fourth-degree assault, theft of a motor vehicle, criminal vehicle operation, making terroristic threats, damage to property, controlled substance in the fourth degree and obstructing legal process. Additional charges may be forthcoming, Motherway said.
Romero, who was not involved in the theft of the police vehicle, was arrested about 6 p.m. Saturday at the Care and Share homeless shelter in Crookston. He's currently in the Northwest Regional Correction Center after being booked for making terroristic threats.
The incident remains under investigation. The Crookston Police Department is being assisted by the Minnesota State Patrol.
