Murder charge: Unlicensed driver intentionally accelerated toward protesters in hopes of vaulting barricade

Prosecutors filed a murder charge against an unlicensed motorist who admitted that he accelerated toward a protest in Uptown in hopes of vaulting over a vehicle that was meant to protect the people he knew were on the other side.

Nicholas D. Kraus, 35, of St. Paul, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree intentional murder and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the crash late Sunday that killed 31-year-old Deona M. Knajdek, of Minneapolis, and injured three other protesters.

The charges come on the day that Knajdek, a project manager for a vulnerable adult service provider and a mother to two girls who also went by the last name Erickson, would have turned 32 years old.

https://www.startribune.com/murder-charge-unlicensed-driver-intentionally-accelerated-toward-protesters-in-hopes-of-vaulting-bar/600068834/