Hometown relatives and big-city neighbors of a 24-year-old Minneapolis woman who died after being struck on her bicycle Wednesday by a hit-and-run driver vowed Friday night to bring the power of a neighborhood to the task of solving the crime.
"We're not out for blood. We're out for justice," Jerome Hanson of Hoffman, Minn., the father of Jessica Hanson, told about 30 people who gathered at the corner of 28th Street and Pleasant Avenue S., where Jessica Hanson was hit late Wednesday night. "If someone would come to the police, it would be better for that person, and for us."
Jessica Hanson, a server at Republic, an Uptown bar, had been on her way to her boyfriend's house about 10:30 p.m. when she was struck at the intersection. She was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center and was pronounced dead Friday.
Police said the vehicle that hit her had been driving faster than the speed limit with its lights off and ran the stop sign when it hit Hanson and fled. Police have no solid description of the vehicle. Hanson was not wearing her helmet, according to friends and family members.
The family, including her mother, a State Patrol officer, came from Hoffman and Kensington, two west-central Minnesota cities whose combined population is less than 1,000, to talk to police, visit the scene and talk to anyone who might have seen something.
Touched by support
Tom Kummrow of Kensington, Hanson's uncle, said they were stunned by the sympathy, support and determination from neighbors, some of whom had rushed to the accident scene and tried to help before emergency workers arrived. Many came out to the corner to hug Hanson's family members Friday.
"You couldn't talk to her without her mentioning she lived in Uptown," Kummrow said. "She was the kind of girl who just wanted to spread her wings and go to the big city. Some of us couldn't understand that. Now we know."
Kummrow said he, family and neighbors are convinced that someone, perhaps someone in the neighborhood, knows they hit Jessica Hanson Wednesday night, but may not know she was killed. Getting the news out in social and traditional media will add pressure, Kummrow said.