Man charged in hit-and-run while intoxicated

A Minneapolis man was charged in a hit-and-run incident that killed a pedestrian, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

Henry Lee Brown, 54, was charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide, one for driving while intoxicated and the other for leaving the scene of an accident in the death of 49-year-old Jerry L. Johnson of Minneapolis. Brown is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday.

According to the criminal complaint, Johnson was crossing the street at 30th and Morgan Avenues North about 5:40 p.m. March 4 when he was struck by a white Ford Edge. Witnesses saw the SUV drive away as Johnson lay in the street. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators recovered surveillance video which showed the collision. The video showed the road and visibility were good, that SUV had room to miss Johnson as he crossed the street, the driver not only continued on after hitting the pedestrian but even ran a nearby stop sign.

A woman who lived not far from the accident scene said she passed the intersection not long after it happened and saw someone lying in the street. When she got home, she found her boyfriend, Brown, sitting in the driver’s seat of her Ford Edge, obviously drunk. He told her he hit something with her car.

The woman called police the next day after seeing news reports about the hit-and-run. Brown told investigators he had been drinking alcohol, did not remember hitting anyone and did not mean for it to happen.

View the criminal complaint against Brown (PDF).