Fleeing Driver Who Caused Double-Fatal Saint Cloud Crash Dies at Hospital

Jul 28

The driver who fled a Saint Cloud traffic stop earlier this month and caused a crash that killed two men has also died, police confirmed Monday.

Christopher Cortez Johnson-Caine, 26, of Sauk Rapids, died from his injuries on July 16 at Saint Cloud Hospital, nearly two weeks after the high-speed crash.

Toxicology testing later revealed his blood alcohol level was .309—nearly four times Minnesota’s legal limit of .08.

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The crash occurred just before 11:46 p.m. on July 2. A Saint Cloud police officer spotted a truck speeding north on 9th Avenue North with no headlights and attempted a traffic stop. The truck pulled over briefly in the 1100 block of 8th Avenue North, but as the officer approached, the driver threw a firearm out the passenger-side window and fled the stop at high speed.

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The officer did not pursue and instead recovered the firearm. While securing the weapon, officers were dispatched to a crash in the 1300 block of 10th Avenue North.

Responding officers determined that the same truck had continued north on 10th Avenue and collided with a car traveling west on 13th Street North. The truck t-boned the car in the intersection.

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The two men inside the car, Suleiman Mohamud Abdi, 59, and Craig Arthur Hennen, 45, both of Saint Cloud, died at the scene.

The investigation remains active and is being led by the Saint Cloud Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Unit and the Minnesota State Patrol.

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