A gun-toting felon was fleeing police with his SUV's headlights off after dark in a north Minneapolis neighborhood when he fatally struck a pregnant teenager who vainly sought safety on a curb from the suspect's vehicle, according to felony charges.
Howard W. Amos, 36, was charged last week in Hennepin County District Court with fleeing police in a motor vehicle resulting in a death and robbery in connection with running over Diana I. Garcia-Alvarado, 16, of Phoenix, on Sept. 2.
Amos was arrested and is now jailed in Ramsey County in an earlier incidence of fleeing police. Court and jail records list him as living in Minneapolis, while the Minneapolis police report notes that he lives in Mapleton, Ga.
"This case is so sad because police were trying to pull Mr. Amos over because they knew his speeding in a residential area could cause just this kind of tragedy," County Attorney Mike Freeman said in announcing the charges. "Worse, Ms. Garcia-Alvarado had reached the safety of the other curb, but Mr. Amos' inability to control his vehicle [sent] the SUV into that normally safe area, taking a young life."
According to the criminal complaint:
Shortly before 10 p.m., police spotted Amos' SUV speeding over the center median at 33rd Avenue North and then speeding north on Emerson Avenue.
Police turned on their squad lights and sirens in hopes that he would pull over. Instead, Amos accelerated to 55-60 miles per hour in the residential neighborhood and ran a stop sign at 34th Avenue.
Garcia-Alvarado's boyfriend told police that the couple had walked to a store for milk and were heading home when they heard the sirens and saw a vehicle with its lights off coming toward them as they stood on the grassy median of the roundabout at 36th and Emerson.
