Minnesota man charged with murder after allegedly plowing car into protest and killing woman

A Minnesota man accused of driving his car into a group of protesters and killing one has been charged with murder, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said Wednesday. Nicholas Kraus was allegedly drunk at the time of the incident, which does not appear to have been a targeted attack.

The alleged incident occurred just before midnight on June 13 during a peaceful protest over the death of Winston Boogie Smith Jr., a 32-year-old Black man who was shot by members of a federal U.S. Marshals Service task force on June 3.  Kraus, 35, is accused of driving his Jeep SUV toward the protesters and striking another vehicle that had been parked as a protective barricade for the demonstrators, thereby pushing the barricade vehicle into the victims. Witness accounts and surveillance video show that Kraus was accelerating at the time of the crash, according to the criminal complaint.