On March 31, 2026, an officer attempted to perform a traffic stop on a white minivan (the “suspect vehicle”) near 83rd Way and Weaver Lake Road in Maple Grove, Hennepin County, Minnesota. The officer noted the suspect vehicle parked at a nearby Speedway and saw that it had expired registration. While following the suspect vehicle north on 83rd Way, the officer observed that the suspect vehicle failed to signal its lane change from the left turn lane to a straight lane. Based on these observations, the officer activated their squad vehicle’s emergency lights.
The suspect vehicle drove slowly and signaled to turn left onto Zinnia Lane North. The driver completed a U-turn and began driving west on 83rd Way. When this happened, the officer made eye contact with the driver and sole occupant and observed that he was a younger black male with black hair that appeared to be possibly in dreadlocks. The suspect vehicle accelerated at a high speed away from the officer, causing the officer to discontinue the pursuit. Through later investigation, law enforcement identified the driver of the suspect vehicle as Defendant PHILLIP JOSEPH PORTER, born on [DOB REDACTED]. On April 7, 2026, Defendant was arrested as a passenger in the suspect vehicle in Brooklyn Center.
An investigator compared still images from body worn camera from that incident to still images from Speedway surveillance before the Maple Grove fleeing incident. In both incidents, Defendant appears to be wearing the same green sweatpants. In addition, Defendant has distinctive dreadlocks seen in both incidents. Brooklyn Center law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Defendant’s cell phone for the April 7 incident. Data from that phone revealed that “Phillip Porter” was listed as iCloud account name.
On March 31 at 11:35 P.M., the user received a text message confirming a cash deposit at the 7-11 in Maple Grove; 7-11 owns Speedway. The attempted traffic stop of the suspect vehicle occurred four minutes later. At 12:15 A.M. On April 1, 2026, the user sent a text message saying, “jus got in high speed bhase by the house.” Defendant is not in custody and is currently on conditional release in court files 27-CR-26-8306 and 27- CR-24-18044. Given the allegations here implicating public safety and evincing reappearance concerns, the State requests that a warrant issue.
