Surveillance video captured Nicholas David Kraus driving into a parked vehicle and then driving into a group of protestors in Minnesota last Sunday, local news KARE11 reports. A witness said Kraus appeared to accelerate as he approached the crowd, which video reportedly confirms.
Protestors, including Kraus’s victim Deona Marie Knajdek, were attending a vigil in honor of Winston Smith, a 32-year-old Black man, who sheriff’s deputies shot and killed earlier this month.
Police say that upon striking the parked car, Kraus killed a Knajdek, a 31-year-old woman. She would have celebrated her 32nd birthday on Wednesday.
Kraus now faces charges of a maximum 40-year prison sentence for the murder charge.
These killings come during a fraught time, as Minnesota residents are enduring the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death.