Macalester student injured in wild car chase

A Macalester College student was seriously injured early Tuesday in a crash with another car during a wild police chase through south Minneapolis, a chase that continued on foot after the fleeing vehicle slammed into a house.

Police Sgt. William Palmer said the chase began at 12:50 a.m., when officers tried to stop a GMC Yukon driving without headlights at 26th Street and 12th Avenue S.

The vehicle was reported stolen, so police tried to pull it over at Lake Street and Chicago Avenue S. The Yukon took off south on Chicago and ran several stop signs before hitting a Subaru Forester driven by Samuel Humleker, 19, at 42nd Street and 13th Avenue S.

The Forester flipped, breaking both of Humleker's legs, Palmer said. Rescue workers had to extract him from the vehicle, and he was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

The Yukon continued until it crashed into a house at 4204 13th Av. S., damaging the home's gas meter and foundation, Palmer said. Two of the car's four occupants, including the driver, fled on foot, Palmer said. Officers released a dog, which caught an 18-year-old woman suspected of being the fleeing passenger. She was taken to HCMC for a bite wound to the leg.

Nearly two hours later, a 19-year-old man suspected of being the vehicle's driver was found inside a nearby yard with a high privacy fence, Palmer said. He was arrested on suspicion of felony criminal vehicular injury and fleeing police in a motor vehicle.

He also was evaluated for drunken driving. The results are expected to come back in several weeks, Palmer said. The vehicle's other occupants were ticketed for tampering with a motor vehicle or joyriding, Palmer said.

Humleker underwent surgery Tuesday for a broken femur and two broken bones in his right calf, said his mother, Cordelia Anderson of Minneapolis. She said her son had dropped off his girlfriend and was heading to his parents' home when his car was struck on the passenger side. Had the girlfriend been in the vehicle, she would have been seriously hurt or worse, Anderson said. After fears for her son's well-being when he repeatedly said he couldn't feel his legs, they're relieved he's eventually going to be OK, she said. She's still reserved about whether the chase should have happened.

"Except for the most egregious things, someone literally kidnapped or shot, I think there would have to be pretty extenuating circumstances to risk exactly what happened," she said.