Charges: Man dropped large rock off Minnesota 36 overpass, sending it crashing through couple's windshield
When the driver, a 26-year-old woman, pulled over to the side of the highway, just past Rice Street, she realized that her 'right arm was dangling' and that a large rock was in her SUV, according to charges filed against the alleged culprit.
Willie Charles Lassiter Jr., 27, of Minneapolis, was charged Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of felony second-degree assault in connection with May 29 incident.
Lassiter is currently in prison for violating terms of probation in a previous Washington County case.
A defense attorney is not listed in Tuesday's case file.
According to the criminal complaint:
A Ramsey County Sheriff's deputy was parked on Rice Street, just north of 36, and saw a man walking north from the east side of the overpass toward a nearby McDonald's restaurant about 10:37 p.m. May 29.
About a minute later, 911 dispatch received a call from a 25-year-old man who said someone had just dropped a rock onto their Ford Escape SUV from the Rice Street Bridge and that his girlfriend's arm was broken.
A Minnesota State Patrol Trooper responded and found the SUV pulled to the side of the road.
The woman said the rock crashed through the windshield, hit her arm and landed on the passenger side floorboard. She was transported to the hospital, where she had surgery to repair her fractured arm.
Meanwhile, the deputy who had seen the man leaving the overpass shortly before the incident caught up with him as he left the McDonald's on Rice Street. The man, who was identified as Lassiter, acknowledged having crossed the overpass, but claimed to have seen two women crossing the other direction at the same time. He was sent on his way.
In a follow-up interview, the woman said that before they approached the bridge from the east, she heard a 'big boom' and then saw the rock in her SUV. She noted that the SUV has a sunroof, where the rock could have fallen through, and added that they easily could have been killed from the incident.
She said that she was going through physical and occupational therapy for her arm injury, and that her boyfriend had suffered cuts to his arms and face.
Police had recovered the rock from the SUV. It was found to match those in a Metro Transit park-and-ride just southeast of 36 and Rice Street.
Surveillance video was recovered that showed Lassiter shoplifting items at a Cub Foods just south of the park-and-ride, the complaint says. At 10:34 p.m., he bent over toward the landscape rocks, appeared to pick something up and walked toward the overpass along the east sidewalk. He disappeared from view.
Just over a minute later, the SUV was seen on video going under the overpass, then braking. No other pedestrians were on the overpass at that time.
An investigator received information that Lassiter was staying with his mother, and called her number. A man who claimed to be Lassiter's brother answered and repeatedly asked what questions the investigator had for Lassiter. The investigator later learned Lassiter does not have a brother.
Related Articles
Ex-Como Park volleyball coach gets 7-year prison term for sexually assaulting player multiple times
St. Paul officers won't be charged in shooting of man at Snelling and University
MN DOC commissioner's ex-wife admits trying to kill disabled son
Trump says Epstein 'stole' young women from Mar-a-Lago spa, including Virginia Giuffre
MN Capitol trespasser propped open door, found naked after-hours in Senate president's chair, charge says
Lassiter has an extensive criminal record that dates back to 2014 and includes an April first-degree burglary conviction out of Hennepin County. He was sentenced to a three-year prison term, which was then stayed, and ordered to serve six months in the workhouse, with an April 15 report date. He didn't show up that day, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
In the Washington County case that sent him to prison last week, Lassiter was found passed out behind the wheel in the area of Hastings Avenue and Bailey Road in Newport just before 7 a.m. April 12, 2021. He failed field sobriety tests, but a preliminary breath test did not detect alcohol use. A blood sample later showed the presence of methadone and cocaine, the criminal complaint says.
Lassiter pleaded guilty to DWI and in September 2022 he was given a stayed three-year prison term, six months in the workhouse and five years' probation. A judge revoked the stayed sentence July 23 after Lassiter violated four conditions of his probation, including failing to remain law-abiding, court records show.
Solve the daily Crossword
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Columbia Sportswear sues Columbia University claiming merchandise is too similar and causes confusion
Columbia Sportswear is suing Columbia University, accusing the university of copyright infringement and breach of contract. The retailer claims the university's clothing and merchandise are too similar to its own offerings and that those similarities may confuse shoppers. The lawsuit was filed on July 23 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. Columbia Sportswear has been using the name "Columbia" since 1938. The university and the retailer reportedly signed a deal in 2023 dictating the ways in which the university can use the word "Columbia" on its own apparel and merchandise. The pact stipulated that the university could use the name "Columbia" on merchandise so long as a school logo or mascot, the word "university", or an academic department of the founding year of the school — which dates back to 1754 — were present alongside the word. Columbia Sportswear claims in its lawsuit that the university breached those terms in 2024 when it allegedly began offering merchandise that used the name "Columbia" without any of the school signifiers established in the pact. The retailer also noted in the filing that the university was offering garments with bright blue colors that were "confusingly similar" to the blue used by Columbia Sportswear. 'The likelihood of deception, confusion, and mistake engendered by the university's misappropriation and misuse of the Columbia name is causing irreparable harm to the brand and goodwill symbolized by Columbia Sportswear's registered mark Columbia and the reputation for quality it embodies,' the lawsuit argues. Columbia Sportswear wants to stop all sales of the university's clothing that allegedly violate the 2023 agreement. It further wants a recall of all previously sold items and all the remaining stock to be donated to charity. The retailer is also seeking three times the amount of actual damages determined by a jury if its litigation is successful. The lawsuit comes at a time when Columbia University is preparing to pay a settlement of more than $220 million to the Trump administration in order to restore its federal research money that the president cancelled earlier this year. Under the settlement, the college will pay $200 million to the federal government over the next three years.
The Hill
4 days ago
- The Hill
Kyiv hit with Russian attack: What it felt like on the ground
Robert Sherman is a White House correspondent for NewsNation. He is reporting from Ukraine. Subscribe to his newsletter: Frontlines with Robert Sherman here. (NewsNation) — It almost looks normal. Maybe it's the bustling McDonald's our team got coffee at this morning. Maybe it's the young couple sharing an ice cream cone in Independence Square. Or the police officers stationed on the highway with their radar guns preparing to write tickets to speeders, as if that were the biggest concern in the world. It look little time for reality to sink in for our NewsNation crew. WATCH: Sleepless night in Kyiv Overnight, Ukraine's capital of Kyiv came under fire from a Russian attack. Sirens blared and intercoms urged people to take shelter as people hastily headed for lower ground. For some, that meant taking shelter in the subway station beneath the city for safety. That first missile impact, which rocked the capital, sent a pulsing wave through the whole city, rattling my hotel. It was several miles away, but the laws of physics (and for that matter the might of modern warfare) made it seem anything but. We stayed put in the center of Kyiv, which locals say is about as safe as it gets here. The sunrise couldn't come sooner. But when it did, new clarity came with the beating rays of this Eastern European Thursday morning. Our team made our way to one of the impact sites in Kyiv hours after the attacks subsided, and what we saw was a residential building blown to pieces. Half of the structure was collapsing in on itself as first responders worked hastily to pick through the rubble. Even before we spoke with the local officials leading the operation, we knew what was happening. The giveaway was the countless faces, concealed by cupped hands over mouths, staring incredulously at the site. The anxiety in their eyes, in too much shock to produce tears, could not unglue from the building. Hundreds were waiting for news. Did their loved ones survive? Could there be a harmless reason they were considered 'missing'? VIDEO: Back in Ukraine Moment by moment, as first responders called the surnames of family members, the painful truth became evident. They were gone. Buried beneath the rubble and lost in a single moment in time. The death toll from this one incident alone is still fluid as of this writing Thursday evening, but it's confirmed to be at least 16 including two children, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The president also says more than 150 are injured including 16 children and six police officers. It was impossible to know the nature of the drone and missile attack from our vantage point in the early morning hours. Even standing there at the scene, I couldn't possibly get the full scope of what transpired. But when I started to see the videos coming in of the Kyiv skyline and multiple plumes of fire erupting, everything started to come into focus. It was a large-scale attack that even locals called 'crazy.' Just days after President Trump announced he was upping the pressure on Russia to make strides toward peace, imposing a new deadline of 10 or 12 days from Monday which would be sometime in the territory of Aug. 7-9, Russia made it's next move. VIDEO: What's New, What's the Same? Kyiv didn't sleep last night. And in our conversations with the people on the streets today, they don't anticipate that will be changing anytime soon. Our NewsNation coverage from Ukraine will continue through next week. I'll be filing some exclusive reports in the coming day that I hope will shed some insight on what this war looks like nearly three and a half years in. If you have a question or observation, please write to me at rsherman@ or through any of my social media channels such as Facebook, X, Instagram or TikTok.
New York Post
4 days ago
- New York Post
Reckless driver who allegedly struck, killed NYC car wash worker is busted 2 years later: cops
A reckless Bronx driver who allegedly struck and killed a car wash employee – pinning him against a vehicle he was drying – has been arrested more than two years later, cops said. Trina Bryant, 32, was picked up at her home by the NYPD's Warrants Squad Thursday afternoon in connection to the caught-on-video Feb. 19, 2023 crash in Morrisania, authorities said. She was charged with manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident, police said. Advertisement 3 Trina Bryant, 32, who allegedly struck and killed car wash employee Felix Thomas Bontia, 47, was arrested more than two years later after the fatal hit-and-run, cops said. CBS2 News via Manny Ramirez Bryant allegedly veered her 2011 Ford Escape directly into the path of a 2017 Toyota Rav4, which Felix Thomas Bontia, 47, was drying after a washing outside the business on Webster Avenue near East 168th Street, police said. Bontia had his back turned to oncoming southbound traffic outside the car wash when Bryant allegedly whizzed into a bus lane and struck both Bontia and the Toyota, with a 58-year-old man behind the wheel, according to cops and the footage. Advertisement Bontia became wedged between both vehicles before he was thrown to the ground, cops said. He was rushed to Lincoln Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The Toyota driver was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in stable condition with minor injuries, authorities said. 3 Bryant was charged with manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and leaving the scene of an accident from the Feb. 19, 2023, car crash in Morrisania. Obtained by the NY Post Advertisement The Toyota also struck a parked, unoccupied 2014 Nissan Altima because of the impact, according to cops. Meanwhile, Bryant's Ford came to a final rest about a block away, where both she and her front passenger got out and ran off, police said. Her passenger had not been caught by Thursday. Bryant pleaded not guilty during her arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court and was ordered held on $250,000 cash bail or $750,000 bond, online court records show. Advertisement 3 Bryant allegedly drove her 2011 Ford Escape straight towards a 2017 Toyota Rav4 that Bonita was drying outside his car wash business before he was struck by Bryant's vehicle. Seth Gottfried She has seven prior arrests – none for driving-related offenses, cops said. Her last arrest was in September of 2023 for allegedly violating an order of protection an acquaintance had in place, authorities said.
