Man badly hurt in crash with driver fleeing Robbinsdale police is determined to plan wife's funeral

The husband and father who barely survived the crash at a Robbinsdale intersection involving a man racing from police is making a strong recovery with a significant motivation: to help plan his wife's funeral.

John Gerding, 34, has been at North Memorial Health since July 8, when a Tesla broadsided the Crystal family's minivan at 36th and Orchard avenues N. after a brief pursuit by an officer who suspected the 20-year-old driver of speeding. Emily Gerding, also 34, did not survive.

John Gerding's injuries are extensive, according to family members: a broken collarbone, leg and wrist, a fracture to the base of his skull and a collapsed lung. A hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday that he was in stable condition.

"Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, as we're waiting for John to get better so he can be part of the funeral planning process," Luke Pherson, Emily's brother-in-law, said in an email Monday. "His recovery so far has been phenomenal, beyond anyone's expectations. He's awake and alert; talking, comprehending and grieving."

Pherson described John as "laser-focused on healing so that he can be there for his daughters. They still have not been able to see him yet. The family wants to wait until the [nasogastric] tube is removed first, so the girls don't get scared of him."

The girls, who were not with their parents as they returned home from a friend's bridal shower, are "doing very well," Pherson said. Eleanor, who turns 3 in less than two weeks, "is too young to fully understand what's happened. Emelia [6½ years old] understands and is processing it with a strength that inspires the rest of us."

Quintin Hudson of Minneapolis has been charged with fleeing police resulting in death and fleeing police resulting in great bodily harm. He also faces one count of criminal vehicular homicide and one count of criminal vehicular operation. He remains jailed in lieu of $300,000 bail and is due back in court Aug. 8.

Video surveillance provided to the Star Tribune from a resident about two blocks from the crash scene showed the Tesla racing south on Orchard and blowing a stop sign without slowing at 38th, where cross traffic has no stop sign.

The charges say Hudson did the same at 36th, a major thoroughfare, where he roared through the intersection "at a high rate of speed, slamming into a minivan that had no stop sign and had the right of way."

Hudson was driving alone. He had a state-issued instruction permit but wasn't legally allowed to drive unless a licensed driver over the age of 18 was with him, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

'Meant to be together forever'

The Gerdings met at Cooper High School in New Hope where they "went to a dance together, then rekindled their love for each other years later when they started working at Target," John Gerding's parents, Greg and Julie, recalled in a joint email that offered a glimpse into the relationship.

"They knew immediately that they were meant to be together forever," Greg and Julie Gerding said. John and Emily married in August 2016. Emelia was born in January 2017, and her sister followed in July 2020.

"Emily was a supermom," her mother, Linda Darmer, said. "She was fierce, feisty, and incredibly brave; and she passed each of those qualities on to her daughters in abundance."

John and Emily Gerding were on staff at Coon Rapids Middle School as special-education teachers, and his parents revealed what inspired their son to a profession that came to include both of them.

"When John began dating Emily, he felt a special bond with her sister Amber [who has] special needs," the parents wrote.

John received his master's degree in special education from Bethel University in Arden Hills in 2020, and Emily earned her undergraduate degree from Bethel two years later.

"Working with children who have special needs really became their passion," Darmer said. "Service to others has always been an innate core value for Emily. It's just who she was. … There is just no replacing someone as kind, caring and compassionate as Emily."

Staff writer Kim Hyatt contributed to this report.