ROSEVILLE, Minn. (WCCO) — Roseville police are trying to figure out why a man ran into two men with his car Tuesday, and then kept driving.
One of the men was dragged nearly three quarters of a mile.
It happened about 1:40 p.m. as the men walked back from lunch near the Roseville Shopping Center.
They were hit right in front of their U.S. Army recruiting office.
“I see them on a daily basis here,” said Marine recruiter Phi Sze, whose office right next door. “It’s a shock to hear something like this would happen.”
Sze was working when Staff Sgt. Michael Stroud and Sgt. First Class Travis Torgerson were walking back from lunch. The two were just feet from the front door when a Jeep Cherokee hit them going about 12 miles an hour. Stroud, 29, of Brooklyn Center, went over the Jeep’s hood, but is OK. Torgerson, 42, of Circle Pines, wasn’t as lucky.
Police say Torgerson’s right leg was caught in the undercarriage of the Jeep and was dragged nearly one mile before the vehicle finally stopped.
“All indications are the driver knew he hit the individuals, but continued to drive,” said Lt. Lorne Rosand of Roseville Police.
Police say the driver, 52-year-old Enrico Darius Taylor of St. Paul, continued to drive even after he heard Torgerson’s pleas for help. He eventually ditched the vehicle near a Motel 6. Workers there became suspicious after he asked them to call for a cab. They called police.
Taylor, who has a lengthy criminal history, was later arrested at a nearby car dealership. Torgerson was rushed to HCMC and has two broken bones in his right leg. A man who served his country overseas, nearly killed feet from where he works.
“I’m disgusted by it,” Rosand said. “I think anyone would be. To know this individual continued to drive his vehicle knowing that there was another individual beneath his car.”
Torgerson has a wife and two children and is in satisfactory condition in the hospital. Stroud is married.
Taylor admitted to police that he knew he had struck two pedestrians and fled the scene. He said he panicked once he heard screaming, he stopped and attempted to pull the pedestrian from beneath his vehicle. That statement conflicts with the victim’s statement. In the last three years, Taylor has had eight contacts/arrests with the Roseville Police Department.
Most of Taylor’s arrests are associated with defrauding/swindling citizens by alleging car problems and seeking cash for repairs.
It’s likely Taylor may have been in the Best Buy or Dick’s Sporting Goods parking lot asking people for money alleging his car was in need of repair. If you had contact with him, call Roseville police at 651-792-7008.
Taylor was eventually booked at Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center for felony criminal vehicular injury.
