With Carl Kauppila set to tie the knot Saturday, the old gang from Michigan's Upper Peninsula thought it might be fun to head to downtown Minneapolis Thursday night for photos at the Stone Arch Bridge.
But the only pictures taken of them, dazed and shirtless, occurred after they risked their lives to wrest a 22-year-old man from a blazing car they had watched careen off Interstate 394 and crash near a Minnetonka frontage road. They said they had seen the interior of the car afire when it sped past earlier.
"His whole body was covered in flames. It just seemed like everything was on fire. The [car] trim, the headliner, all was in flames," said Jared Bekkala, 26, an auto body technician who works in Hopkins.
The victim, from Bloomington, was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center with severe burns characterized as life-threatening, said Lt. Eric Roeske of the State Patrol. His name was not released because he's under investigation by Minneapolis and Bloomington police.
At the time of the crash, the man was the subject of an alert put out by Bloomington police for probable cause hit-and-run and assault, Cmdr. Mark Stehlik said.
Earlier Thursday evening, the man's ex-girlfriend told Bloomington police he rear-ended her vehicle as she and a friend moved out of their apartment. She told police that after they stepped out of their car, the man turned his car around and sped toward them before driving off.
The evening was not exactly what the four Kauppila brothers, cousin Chase Riutta, 26, of Missoula, Mont., and friends Bekkala and Dennis Juopperi, 28, of Wayzata, had envisioned.
The seven dropped off their tuxes at the hotel and piled into two cars about 10 p.m. and headed downtown. As they entered I-394 they spotted a car "doing about 100 or so" in the HOV lane, Bekkala said. Then they saw the interior of the speeding car was in flames.
