Charge: Driver admits to fatal hit-and-run in St. Paul; said he was out buying marijuana

An unlicensed motorist said he was on his way back from buying marijuana when he killed a 60-year-old pedestrian in St. Paul in a hit-and-run collision, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

Christopher D. Mack, 23, of St. Anthony, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the collision Sunday night that killed Lor Xiong of St. Paul.

Mack was booked into jail about four hours after the crash and then released about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, several hours before the complaint was filed. A judge has since issued a warrant for his arrest.

At the time of the collision, Mack was driving despite having had his license revoked, the state Department of Public Safety said Monday.

Xiong, the father of four daughters and three sons, was walking home at the time he was hit, said an online fund­raising campaign started to help the family with funeral and other expenses.

According to the complaint:

A witness told police he was driving in the area and saw Xiong standing at the corner of Phalen Boulevard at Atlantic Avenue. The witness said Xiong declined his offer for a ride.

The witness soon saw an SUV speeding and moving erratically. Sensing that "something was wrong," the witness took down the SUV's license plate number and returned to the intersection, where he found Xiong down in the street.

Officers used the license plate information to track down the damaged vehicle and found Mack that night at a home in the 300 block of Toronto Street in St. Paul. There, the vehicle owner said her juvenile daughter and her daughter's boyfriend, Mack, told her that the SUV was hit in a grocery store parking lot.

Mack initially told officers that his girlfriend was driving when Xiong was run over. He soon admitted to leaving the scene but not knowing that he hit a person.

He said he and his girlfriend "had gone to purchase marijuana from somebody and that they were on the way back when the collision occurred," the complaint read.

Mack also has charges pending in Ramsey County alleging he violated registration requirements as a predatory sex offender. Additionally, his criminal history in Minnesota includes convictions in 2018 for driving under the influence of an illicit drug and in 2016 for a predatory offender registration violation.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482