On August 21, 2025, around 8:18 P.M., officers responded to a crash-with-injuries report at the intersection of Mitchell Road and Chestnut Drive in Eden Prairie, Hennepin County, Minnesota. Dispatch relayed that a car had struck a child. On this date, sunset occurred around 8:12 P.M. The weather report did not include precipitation, and the road conditions were listed as dry. At the scene, responding officers located four children and their mother (“Adult Victim”). Adult Victim was carrying a nonresponsive two-year-old child (“Child Victim”). Officers noted that Child [NAME REDACTED], had a laceration to the left side of her head, and scrapes on her back.
Child Victim vomited several times while officers tended to her injuries. Paramedics arrived and transported Adult Victim, [NAME REDACTED], and the other children to the hospital. Also at the scene, officers located part of a side, rearview mirror and a piece of plastic. Preliminary information established that a vehicle had crashed into Adult Victim [NAME REDACTED] was walking with her four children across Mitchell Road. That vehicle did not remain at the scene. When the crash occurred, Adult Victim was pulling some of the children in a wagon, which police found lying on its side in the crosswalk of northbound Mitchell Road.
There is a marked crosswalk at Mitchell Road and Chestnut Drive, which had pedestrian crossing signs for traffic in each direction and a rectangular pedestrian crosswalk stand on the center line of Mitchell Road. Based on initial witness statements and information, law enforcement believed that the suspect vehicle was a white sedan. The next day, however, an officer received a phone call from Defendant JOHN CHARLES BRECOUNT, born on [DOB REDACTED]. When the crash occurred, Defendant served as a volunteer chaplain with the Eden Prairie Police Department.
During the phone call, Defendant asked the officer about the crash from the previous evening, and the officer explained that a two-year-old child [NAME REDACTED]. Defendant replied, “I think it was me,” and stated that he thought that he had struck a crosswalk sign. Defendant also shared that his driver’s mirror was damaged. Defendant explained that he had driven home from a church the night before around 8:20 P.M. When his wife had texted him about getting dinner. Defendant looked down at his phone and thought that he had clipped a crosswalk sign at Mitchell Road and Carmody Drive.
Defendant sent photographs showing that the plastic housing was missing from his truck’s driver’s side mirror. Law enforcement responded to Defendant’s residence. There, officers observed that the driver’s side mirror assembly was broken and that it lacked an assembly cover. The shape and texture of the suspected assembly cover for a side mirror that officers recovered at the crash scene matched the remaining passenger side mirror assembly on Defendant’s vehicle. Officers noted fresh damage to Defendant’s vehicle’s left front, left center, and driver’s side door.
