Man accused of driving into protesters charged with murder

A man who allegedly drove into protestors in Minneapolis has been charged with murder, authorities announced Wednesday.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement that Nicholas Kraus, 35, was charged with intentional second-degree murder for striking a female protestor on Saturday while he was drunk.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victim as 31-year-old Deona Marie Erickson and said the cause of death was “multiple blunt force injuries.”

According to The New York Times, Erickson also went by the name Deona M. Knadjdek and was known for participating in social justice activism.

Demonstrators had been protesting the fatal shooting of Winston Boogie Smith Jr., who was shot by U.S. marshals earlier this month.

Police responded to a vehicle that crashed into pedestrians during the protest on June 13. Officers found the victim with severe head injuries, Freeman said.

Another victim who was injured told police that Kraus’s SUV came barreling toward the protesters and hit a barricade so hard that it pushed back into the group of protesters. The victim further said that Kraus began accelerating has he neared the barricades.

When police spoke to Kraus the next day, he admitted to driving his SUV in the area and when seeing the barricade felt he needed to “get over it.”

He also admitted to accelerating in an attempt to jump the barricade and said he thought he may hit someone as he was driving toward it.

Kraus is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. According to NBC News, he is currently jailed on $1 million bail.