Authorities in Minnesota have upgraded to murder charges against an alleged drunk driver who rammed into a crowded patio seating area of a St. Louis Park tavern, killing two people.
Steven Frane Bailey, 56, was already charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and nine counts of criminal vehicular operation for the September 1 incident at Park Tavern, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.
A preliminary breath test put Bailey’s blood alcohol content at .325, four times the legal limit.
The victims were named as Kristina Folkerts, a 30 year-old mother of three and server at the tavern, and Gabe Harvey, a health unit coordinator at Methodist Hospital who was at the tavern with a group of nurses celebrating one of their number’s last shift.
The county attorney’s office said the new third-degree murder charges came after they viewed surveillance video from the crash. A description of the video explains that Bailey drove into the tavern’s parking lot and passed several parked cars, coming to a halt as he passes an empty parking spot. He is seen backing up to swing into the empty spot, but “backs up further than appears necessary” and hits a parked car.
Then, Bailey appears to attempt to flee the scene, accelerating to a high rate of speed in the parking lot. As he does so, an SUV turns into the same area, and Bailey “appears to swerve slightly” to avoid it. But he hits the driver’s side of the SUV and then “without slowing down … continues to accelerate straight towards the patio,” where there is no outlet from the parking lot.
Bailey passes several parking spaces and then “plows his vehicle through a metal fence and into the patio seating area,” the county attorney’s office said.
“Mr. Bailey’s BMW hits multiple occupied tables, striking multiple people and sending debris flying,” the office said. “He continues driving all the way through the full length of the patio without braking. His vehicle does not slow down until it comes to an abrupt and violent halt when it hits several boulders and the base of a steep incline. ”
Bailey remains jailed with a $1.5 million bond, jail records show. He is due in court on October 1.
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[Featured image: Kristina Folkerts/GoFundMe, Gabe Harvey/obituary photo, and Stephen Frane Bailey/Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office]
