With driver’s death, new charge added against unlicensed motorist who caused pileup in Becker

A motorist has died after being severely injured in a crash in Sherburne County early this month that was caused by an unlicensed driver charged with fleeing a sheriff’s deputy in a stolen pickup truck.

Christopher James Vyskocil, 36, died late Monday afternoon after he was caught up in a multivehicle wreck in Becker, Minn., on Hwy. 10 near Liberty Lane, according to his wife.

“My husband was fully restored and entered through the pearly gates,” Brittany Vyskocil wrote on an online fundraising page started to help her and her four children cope with expenses related to the crash. “My family is absolutely devastated with this loss.”

Christopher Vyskocil suffered significant brain injuries, his wife said.

Bradley Alfred Allen Johnson, 21, of Montrose, Minn., appeared Wednesday in District Court after being charged with a newly added count of fleeing police in a vehicle and causing a death and various other counts in connection with the four-vehicle wreck.

Johnson remains jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail. He is due back in court on Sept. 11. A message was left with his attorney seeking a response to the allegations.

At the time of the crash, Johnson was driving after the state revoked his license, a Department of Public Safety spokesman said.

Court records show he has been convicted three times this year for the same offense, twice in a one-week span in May. He’s also been convicted twice this year for driving without insurance and was caught twice last year for speeding.

While still at the scene, Johnson admitted to ingesting heroin about five hours earlier, according to the criminal complaint. A law enforcement search of his clothing turned up drug paraphernalia, the complaint continued.

Brittany Vyskocil, who is a nurse at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center, said Tuesday that she went to the scene of the pileup, and “I knew I was not going to be bringing my husband home.”

She said that while it is frustrating that Johnson continued to drive despite having had his license revoked multiple times, “I know that at some point, I am going to have to forgive him. ... That day will come, but it’s not going to be today.”

According to the charges:

A sheriff’s deputy spotted a pickup truck that was reported stolen as it headed out of St. Cloud on eastbound Hwy. 10. The deputy started pursuing the pickup at speeds topping 100 miles per hour.

After entering Becker, the deputy saw that the pickup had struck a gasoline pump at a Speedway at Hwy. 10 and Liberty Lane.

A state trooper arrived and spotted Vyskocil’s badly damaged car on westbound Hwy. 10. An unconscious Vyskocil was in the vehicle. Emergency medical responders took him to North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale.

An SUV was in the same lane as Vyskocil’s car. That driver survived her injuries. Johnson also suffered noncritical injuries.