MINNEAPOLIS — A murder charge was filed Wednesday against an unlicensed motorist who admitted that he accelerated toward a protest in Uptown in hopes of vaulting over a vehicle that was meant to protect the people he knew were on the other side.
Nicholas D. Kraus, 35, of St. Paul, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree intentional murder and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the crash late Sunday that killed 31-year-old Deona M. Knajdek, of Minneapolis, and injured three other protesters.
The murder count represents a far more serious charge against Kraus and the potential for many years in prison if convicted, rather than the more typical count of criminal vehicular homicide.
The charges come on the day that Knajdek, a project manager for a vulnerable adult service provider and a mother to two girls, would have turned 32 years old.
Kraus remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail ahead of a court appearance that has yet to be scheduled. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement that Kraus was intoxicated when he committed an "extreme and violent intentional act" that killed a peaceful protester.
"His behavior and admittance to intentionally driving towards the protesters is one important reason why we have charged him with intentional second-degree murder," Freeman continued.
Kraus' criminal history in Minnesota includes five convictions for drunken driving, most recently in 2016 in Anoka County and as far back as 2008. He's also been convicted numerous times for driving without a valid license, and for assault, failure to have auto insurance and giving police a false name.
At the time of Sunday night's crash, Kraus' license status was canceled, and it has been that way since shortly after a drunken driving conviction in 2013, according to state officials.
Knajdek was among protesters who have been gathering at W. Lake Street and S. Girard Avenue since shortly after Winston Boogie Smith Jr. was fatally shot by law enforcement on June 3 during an attempt by a U.S. Marshals Service task force to arrest him in a parking ramp.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Smith fired a gun from his vehicle. An unidentified woman who was in the car with Smith said she never saw him with a weapon, her attorneys said last week. Authorities have said that no body or dash camera or surveillance footage is available in the case.
According to the charges against Kraus:
One of the injured protesters told police that he heard people yelling "Car!" repeatedly, looked up and saw the SUV coming toward him as it "seemed to accelerate." Nearby video surveillance confirmed the witness's account.
Kraus, interviewed by police the next day, said he saw the car acting as a barricade and "believed he needed to get over it," understanding there were people in his path, the complaint read.
He admitted that he "floored the accelerator because he thought could clear the barricade, but rather struck the vehicle," the charges continued. He also admitted that he might have hit one or more people.
A court document filed early this week by police backs up the contention of witnesses that Kraus was speeding and showed no signs of slowing down as he neared the protest barrier while heading east on Lake Street. He struck Knajdek's vehicle, which then struck her, according to witnesses and police.
Video from a city-operated camera shows Kraus' 2-ton SUV "continues through the intersection at a high rate of speed [and] the driver does not appear to hit the brakes in the footage," reads a search warrant affidavit filed by police for court permission to collect a blood sample for testing to determine whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.
The filing also revealed that Kraus was acting "in a bizarre manner" moments after the crash, telling one officer that his name was Jesus Christ or movie director Tim Burton and "that he has been a carpenter for 2,000 years."
Kraus was "answering questions that were irrelevant" and wanted an officer to "tell his dead mother that he doesn't like her," the court document continued.
The officer summed up his filing that based on his observations, "I believe the male is under the influence of an intoxicating substance."
