Charges: Mankato driver kills pedestrian while racing another vehicle

MANKATO, Minn. (FOX 9) - The driver of a vehicle in Mankato has been charged after hitting and killing a pedestrian while allegedly attempting to race another driver.

Kaylee Lynette Richmond, 18, is charged with criminal vehicular homicide after a race on city streets that took one pedestrian’s life. According to charges, on Aug. 14, around 9:30 p.m., Richmond was spotted "sobbing and hyperventilating" just south of the intersection of Madison Avenue and Hope Street in Mankato.

Responding officers noted that, "Richmond admitted that she was racing another vehicle eastbound on Madison Avenue when she struck [a] victim in the roadway," according to police.

Richmond told police she was driving, stating that, "the other car should be in trouble too… He was trying to race me," and that, "I like going fast, and he was trying to race me." Richmond said she, "looked over at the other car she was racing, looked back and there was a ‘guy in front of me’," charges state.

According to one witness who was seated on a patio nearby at the time of the crash, she saw a dark car driving eastbound and a white car that had stopped in the roadway, when the dark car "tore off" continuing eastbound. Richmond was the driver of the white car, according to charges.

Police reconstruction efforts estimate that the speed of Richmond’s white Nissan was traveling 70 to 75 miles per hour (mph) based on the level of damage and the severity and type of the injuries sustained by the victim. The speed limit on Madison Avenue in the area the crash occurred is 35 mph.

There were no pre-impact skid marks noted by the initial reconstruction.

An investigation is ongoing.