A teenager has been charged in the death of two passengers while fleeing police in a high-speed crash of a SUV that had been carjacked at gunpoint in Minneapolis. The crash cut the vehicle in half.
Tiana L.A. Hughes, 17, of Minneapolis, was charged Thursday by juvenile petition in Hennepin County District Court with two counts of causing death while fleeing police, second-degree manslaughter and two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash on Dec. 9, 2021.
Officials have yet to disclose when Hughes will be in court, but prosecutors have indicated they intend to have her tried as an adult, which could mean a more severe sentence. Court records do not list an attorney for her.
Investigators had to test DNA in blood found on a steering wheel airbag and the driver's side window to determine who was the driver, the charges read. That evidence, along with DNA collected from four others in the SUV, allowed prosecutors to conclude Hughes was driving and charge her a year later.
Shawndale D. Hickman, 16, of Minneapolis, died at the scene, while a teenage girl died at the hospital. The Medical Examiner's Office identified her as Debra Ann Ward, 16, of Minneapolis. The charges say both were thrown from the rear of the vehicle.
About eight months earlier, Ward was in a stolen SUV that crashed in north Minneapolis. She and a cousin were arrested and jailed. Ward was charged with a series of felonies, triggering a legal case that ended upon her death.
According to the complaint and other law enforcement records:
Minneapolis police were alerted about 6 p.m. on Dec. 8, 2021, to the armed carjacking of a Mercedes SUV near 12th and Fremont avenues.
