Death puts street racers on cops' radar

Street racers who pit their flashy cars in rubber-screaming competitions have congregated for years in the warehouse district of St. Paul where an innocent motorist was killed over the weekend.

Moussa Maayif's death is bringing renewed attention to street racing, a popular back-alley sport fueled in part by video games that promise high risk at dangerous speeds. While street racing remains very much underground -- participants use text messages, for example, to warn one another of approaching police -- the culture burst into public view early Sunday, when a car fleeing a street racer gathering and being pursued by police slammed into Maayif's vehicle at University Avenue and Vandalia Street.

"It's been a problem all across the city," St. Paul police spokesman Sgt. Paul Schnell said of street racing.

The races often are spontaneous events, he said. But the networks are vast, making it possible for hundreds of people to gather quickly. Investigators have seen the routine: A couple of cars roll in, circle an area a few times and, a short time later, a crowd converges, Schnell said.

In St. Paul, as many as 400 cars appear on some weekend nights at the Capp Industries property north of University Avenue and west of Transfer Road -- near where Maayif was killed -- and have done so against the owner's wishes for at least five years.

"They basically park and watch the races and they party and drink beer and smoke pot and do burnouts and build campfires and do things that kids will do," said Joe Van Ornum, the company's vice president of property leasing.

Tenants of the warehouse that Capp Industries owns stay away at night because they're afraid of the racers, he said. About a year ago, the company installed dozens of "No Trespassing" signs that in effect give police authority to ticket anyone parked in the warehouse lots.

Street-level view

Efforts to fight street racing have been likened to squeezing a balloon, police said: Squeeze it one place and it moves elsewhere. With such little success catching racers, police have taken steps to limit racing locations and spectators, often by ticketing spectators for seemingly minor violations.

But as a result of Sunday's crash, Schnell said, and a recent resurgence of activity north of University Avenue, the department's command staff is reviewing enforcement and investigative options. And that may mean that street racing as a phenomenon has become too hot for St. Paul.

Yet the racers have their own explanation. "We do it because we love it," one street racer, identified only as Sam from Burnsville, said Tuesday. "There's no track anywhere close that we can just meet up and race, and it's free. Many gearheads put thousands of dollars into their cars, and the only way they make their money's worth is to go to St. Paul and show it off by racing. I am pretty sure no one goes there to make civilians or cops mad."

A national concern

At the time of Sunday's fatal accident, several hundred people had gathered to watch racing in the area near University Avenue and Transfer Road, a short distance from Vandalia Street, where last year police officials worked with the city attorney's office and local businesses to tighten enforcement.

Recently, however, officers began to notice that racers and spectators were returning in larger numbers, Schnell said.

Maayif, 39, died when the driver of the fleeing car, Jacqueline M. Wagner, 20, hit his vehicle so hard that it went airborne and sheared a utility pole. Wagner, who police said was driving about 60 miles an hour, has been charged with criminal vehicular homicide.

Speed bumps slowed action

This summer, Schnell said, service roads near Hwy. 280 have been reported to be a hot spot for racers. For many years, Red Rock Road, just west of Hwy. 61 on the city limits of St. Paul and Newport, attracted scores of cars on weekend nights.

Street racing has raised concerns nationwide because of high-speed driving and deaths that result. It's also embraced in popular culture with movies such as "The Fast and the Furious" series and "Biker Boyz." And websites for game stores list wide selections of street racing videos.

One advertisement reads: "Speeding through crowded streets. Running red lights. Terrorizing pedestrians. Driving on sidewalks and outrunning the cops. ... You know the rules. There are none!"

At Capp Industries, Van Ornum said that safety has been his company's principal concern.

"It's just a damn shame," he said of Maayif's death. "I'm really sick about the whole thing."