MINNEAPOLIS – The Hennepin County Sherriff’s Office says a 6-year-old girl, identified as Blessings McLurain-Gray, was killed when a driver they were pursuing hit the car she was in during a chase Friday evening.
The driver, identified by a Minneapolis police spokesperson as Hakeem Waheed Muhammad, collided with a car that had five passengers inside while he ran from police. Another passenger inside the car, a fifteen-year-old, is still in the hospital.
On July 11, prior to his arrest, Muhammad was charged for Dampier’s murder. Charging documents alleged Muhammad shot and killed Dampier following an altercation in Minneapolis.
Dampier was a 29-year-old father of two. He had a third child on the way when he was killed in April.
Brooklyn Center police say they received a tip that Muhammad was in the city around 4:20 p.m. Friday evening. While police haven’t released how the chase began, they say at one point, Muhammad reached speeds of 70 mph in residential areas.
In a statement from police, Brooklyn Center officers tried both using spike strips and utilizing the help of a patrol helicopter. Neither effort was successful. Minutes later, Muhammad crashed at the intersection of 53rd Avenue and Humboldt Avenue – straddling the border of Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center.
Devan Dampier’s mother quickly made it to the scene.
“Looking at the wreckage was just kind of disbelief,” said “That somebody else now, their family was impacted by his recklessness.”
Neighbors and community activists voiced frustration that police would follow pursuit through a residential area.
“I can understand people’s anger with the police in chasing a suspect because then it does risk the lives of others,” Foss said. “But ultimately it’s the person who chose to take police on a high-speed chase. He was reckless. He didn’t care about anybody else, any family. Just anybody. He was just trying to get away and not have to deal with the consequences of his actions.”
An HCSO spokesperson says the other three passengers in the vehicle Muhammad hit have been released from the hospital. Muhammad is listed as booked into Hennepin County Jail but is still receiving medical care, confirms a release.
