Charges: 'Super drunk' driver fled scene after Minneapolis crash that killed young woman

(KMSP) - A young man faces two counts of criminal vehicular homicide counts in the death of Ria Patel last week in Minneapolis.

Michael Campbell was charged after crashing into a traffic light Sunday in northeast Minneapolis. His passenger, 20-year-old Ria Patel, died in the crash, and Campbell fled the scene.

Campbell, 21, has acquired "a list of speeding, careless driving and hit-and-run charges," according to the Hennepin County attorney's office.

Campbell was charged with criminal vehicular homicide-operating in a grossly negligent manner and criminal vehicular homicide-driver causing the collision leaves the scene. 

He is expected to make his first court appearance Thursday.

According to the criminal complaint, a woman was coming off of westbound I-35W when she heard a loud crash and saw a red Ford Focus "bouncing off the semaphore at Stinson Boulevard near Ridgeway Parkway" around 3:40 a.m. Sunday."

The woman watched Campbell get out of the car and run to a nearby McDonald’s. She called 911 and then saw Campbell return to the car and "dig around for something in the driver’s side of the vehicle."

The witness walked toward him and Campbell told her to call 911. She told him she had and that police were on the way. He then ran east toward the Honeywell parking lot.

A Honeywell employee said they saw Campbell running through the parking lot while holding a cell phone and watched as Campbell jumped the fence along the 35W exit ramp, according to the complaint.

When police arrived, they found the Focus pointed southbound in the northbound lane of the divided road. Paramedics worked on Patel, who was in the passenger seat, but pronounced her dead at the scene, the complaint states.

According to the complaint, Campbell left his wallet at the scene, so officers went to his house. Friends there said they did not know he had left the house and one described him as “super drunk” earlier in the morning.

Campbell was on probation from a January conviction of misdemeanor hit-and-run, according to the complaint.