Timothy Bakdash says he ran over pedestrians on purpose
Timothy Ayman Bakdash is going to be charged with second degree murder this morning in the wake of a hit-and-run incident more than a week ago in Dinkytown that fatally wounded Benjamin Van Handel, a U of M student.
The criminal complaint alleges that Bakdash, of Roseville, had been drinking at The Library Bar and gotten into an argument with a group of people who he then set out to run down on purpose.
He got into his Mitsubishi Galant, turned the wrong way down 5th Street SE, a one-way street, hit the gas, steered the car onto the sidewalk, and mowed down Van Handel and two other women early April 15. [Read the complaint here.]
Handel died Thursday of massive brain injuries, the same day that Minneapolis police arrested Bakdash. The two women with Van Handel were badly injured, but survived.
Benjamin Van Handel.
"Defendant admitted he intended to hit and kill three of the people there," the complaint said.
Police caught up with Bakdash after he unloaded the car for $1,500 to a witness identified only as B.B. in the complaint. B.B. told police he heard Bakdash's mother, Diane, on the telephone tell her son to sell the car ASAP, and she signed the Galant's title at sale.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman has scheduled a news conference this afternoon to flesh out details on the charges against Bakdash.
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