Driver Accused of Intentionally Striking Man in North Minneapolis Feud

May 26

A man is facing a felony assault charge after Minneapolis police say he intentionally struck another man with his car earlier this month, leaving the victim with a serious head injury.

Carlos Vondale Weems, 35, is charged with first-degree assault causing great bodily harm in connection to the May 6 incident, which was captured on surveillance video.

Weems is accused of using a Chevrolet Impala as a weapon in a targeted attack after a dispute escalated.

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Officers responded just before 8 p.m. to the area of 22nd Avenue North and Fremont Avenue North and found a man unconscious in the middle of the one-way street. He was bleeding from the head, twitching and unresponsive. The victim was later hospitalized and required 13 staples to his head, though prosecutors are awaiting medical records to determine the full extent of his injuries.

Surveillance video showed the victim arriving alone and sitting near the northeast corner of the intersection shortly after 7:25 p.m., appearing to talk on the phone. Around 7:49 p.m., a dark grey Chevrolet Impala pulled into an alley behind the victim. The driver, identified as the mother of the victim’s children, then got out of the vehicle. The passenger, later confirmed to be Weems, also exited.

According to police, the victim attempted to deescalate the situation by walking backward while trying to maintain distance from Weems, who repeatedly tried to engage in a fight. Witnesses reported that the woman appeared to be recording the confrontation on her phone.

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Roughly five minutes later, Weems and the woman returned to the vehicle. This time, Weems got into the driver’s seat. The victim, who had walked back to his spot across the street, began crossing the road again. Investigators say Weems accelerated from a stop and drove the wrong way on Fremont Avenue North, directly into the victim’s path. The victim tried to move out of the way but was struck.

Video shows the impact was forceful enough to knock off the victim’s shoe and launch him onto the roof of the vehicle, which continued driving before the victim was thrown off near a parking lot entrance. Surveillance footage from additional cameras showed the Impala later traveling westbound on 26th Avenue North with new damage to its front bumper.

Police say witnesses at the scene described the same sequence of events captured on video.

On May 20, officers located the Impala parked near a residence on Emerson Avenue North. A traffic stop was initiated after Weems left the area and he was taken into custody.

In a recorded interview, Weems admitted to an ongoing conflict with the victim that included two physical fights earlier in the day. He acknowledged the confrontation at 22nd and Fremont followed those earlier altercations. Investigators also found online videos appearing to show Weems fighting with the same man hours before the hit-and-run.

At the time of this alleged incident, Weems was on parole for a 2020 drive-by shooting case out of Morrison County, for which he was serving a 78-month prison sentence. He was released from prison last September.

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