Angered partygoer injures two with truck

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

April 8, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Two people were injured in a weekend party incident allegedly involving an angered partygoer, according to Bemidji Police Sgt. Jeff Sladky.

In an accident reported early Sunday morning, a party patron was asked to leave 1122 America Ave. because of "unruly conduct," Sladky said.

But after leaving peacefully, the driver of a black 1990 Toyota pickup got in the vehicle, drove over the boulevard and sidewalk at a "high rate of speed" straight toward a crowd of people present at the party, he said.

The truck struck one man, pinning him between the vehicle and a cement pillar on the house's steps -- breaking the man's leg. The driver then sped backward in the truck striking a woman and sped away, Sladky said.

Both injured people were taken to North Country Regional Hospital, at which a representative said Monday they had been treated and released. Sladky said he believed the man sustained a broken leg and the woman was treated and released without injury.

Sladky said the incident is under investigation, and police were in the process of locating the driver of the vehicle, which is not necessarily the owner. An arrest would probably be made soon, he added.