Minneapolis police investigating unauthorized release of transit video showing crash that killed 5

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said his department is investigating the unauthorized release of Metro Transit video showing the collision late Friday that killed five people in one of the vehicles.

Five young women who had just left Karmel Mall after having henna applied for a friend's wedding were killed when driver Derrick John Thompson, 27, of Brooklyn Park, ran a red light and struck their car.

Thompson was apprehended soon after the crash and taken to HCMC to be tested for drug and alcohol use. He was booked into the Hennepin County jail Monday afternoon on probable cause murder. Charges could be filed as soon as Tuesday, police spokesman Adam Kennedy said.

Killed were Sabiriin Ali, 17, of Bloomington; Sahra Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center; Salma Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park; Sagal Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis; and Siham Adam, 19, of Minneapolis. Three of the women were cousins, one was another relative, and the fifth was a friend.

On the 5-second video, which has been viewed more than 640,000 times since it went live over the weekend on Twitter, Thompson's 2023 Cadillac Escalade SUV can be seen speeding away from the Interstate 35W exit ramp and slamming into the victims' Honda Civic sedan as it headed west on E. Lake Street. The SUV weighed roughly twice as much as the vehicle it hit.

Thompson picked up the SUV at the Hertz car rental location at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at 9:46 p.m., 25 minutes before the crash at 10:10 p.m. according to police dispatch audio.

In a statement released Sunday night, O'Hara called the premature release of the video "very concerning."

The chief said police "will conduct an internal review along with Metro Transit PD to try to determine the source. I will also review and consider policy changes to limit how video of evidentiary value may be received from an outside agency by members of the MPD."

County Attorney Mary Moriarty released a statement Monday voicing disappointment that the victims' families "were further devastated by the shock of seeing the video of the crash that took their loved ones [being] shared widely and without authorization on social media, before they had a chance to view and process it themselves."

Moriarty said she is confident the leaking of the video will not affect her office's ability to file charges in this "senseless, selfish act of reckless driving."

City Council Member Jamal Osman expressed his distress about the crash video going public.

"The dissemination of such sensitive and distressing material without proper consideration for the grieving [families'] privacy is deeply concerning and unacceptable," Osman's statement read.

Osman, who has been offering his support to the grieving families, added that the video went public "despite senior law enforcement members giving me direct assurances that this video would not be released until after the families had a chance to view it. Unfortunately, not everyone agreed to allow the victims' families to view the last moments of their loved ones' lives first — and this horrific video is … all over social media."

O'Hara countered that he is "not aware of who the 'senior law enforcement members' are that gave the council member 'direct assurances' regarding family arrangements to view this particular video. The only family arrangements the MPD is aware of concerned the viewing of dashcam video from the [State Patrol] — not Metro Transit surveillance video."

In February 2020, Thompson was sentenced for a hit-and-run crash in 2018 near Santa Barbara, Calif., that left a pedestrian seriously injured. Law enforcement said it found in his vehicle more than 17 pounds of marijuana and over $20,000 in cash. Thompson received an eight-year term but qualified for early release from prison.

Thompson, the son of former state Rep. John Thompson, DFL-St. Paul, has a long history of driving-related offenses. It includes convictions for driving with a revoked or suspended license, according to state court and Department of Public Safety records. His license was reinstated in March 2023 and was valid at the time of the crash.

Friday's crash video is the second from Metro Transit involving a violent death to be released without authorization in less than a month. The earlier video showed the moment Reginald Eugene Snelling, 41, of Minneapolis, was struck following an altercation around 1:30 a.m. May 20. He was run over by a Metro Transit train leaving the Hennepin Avenue/Warehouse District station in downtown Minneapolis.

A 29-year-old man was arrested that night and later released without charges pending further investigation.

Metro Transit spokesman Drew Kerr said Monday the circumstances of the light rail video's release remain under investigation.

Moriarty's statement noted that these leaked videos "deeply impact the family and loved ones of the victims and undermine community trust in the criminal legal system. I have expressed my concern to Minneapolis City Attorney [Kristyn] Anderson and MPD Chief O'Hara about the unauthorized release of two non-public videos during ongoing investigations without any warning to the families."

Star Tribune staff writer Liz Sawyer contributed to this report.