Brooklyn Center officers who pursued murder suspect until deadly crash identified

Authorities have identified the four police officers who pursued a murder suspect last week on several streets in Brooklyn Center until the man crashed his SUV and killed a 6-year-old girl in another vehicle.

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday night that officers Tyler Sheets, Cooper Gauldin, Anthony Luckey and Al Salvosa were involved in the pursuit on July 15 that topped 90 miles per hour before the collision at N. 53rd and Humboldt avenues.

For Salvosa, this is at least his fourth call since 2014 that involved a death. Luckey has been on the scene of two encounters in the past 15 months that resulted in a death. Both officers played roles in the traffic stop and aftermath when officer Kimberly Potter fatally shot Daunte Wright as he tried to flee arrest in April 2021.

Hakeem W. Muhammad, 28, of Minneapolis, was charged this week in Hennepin County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide, criminal vehicular operation and fleeing police in a vehicle in connection with the collision that killed Blessings U McLaurin Grey and seriously injured fellow passenger Lanayshona Bell-King, 15.

Muhammad remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail ahead of a court hearing Friday. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

Police located Muhammad, who had a murder warrant out for his arrest, about 4:20 p.m. in a gas station parking lot on N. 57th Avenue just east of Hwy. 100. Two uniformed officers, guns drawn, approached Muhammad's SUV and demanded to see his hands. Instead, Muhammad sped away, according to the charges.

The officers returned to their squad and were joined by several squads in the high-speed pursuit that reached 94 mph at one point, the charges continued. "Without stopping at the posted stop sign, [Muhammad] crashed into the Ford Edge, causing it to flip over," the charges read.

Five people were in the vehicle that Muhammad's SUV hit. Along with Blessings and Bell-King, the others seen at a hospital and released were driver April A. McHerron, 32, of Minneapolis; Marrayah Billberry, 9; and Naledege D. Billberry, 5, the Sheriff's Office said.

Muhammad had been charged July 11 with second-degree murder and illegal weapons possession in the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Devan Dampier on April 7 in the 1100 block of N. 21st Avenue, about a block north of West Broadway. Muhammad was upset with Dampier, of Minneapolis, for accusing him of being a snitch, according to the charges.

The crash is being investigated by the Sheriff's Office, which has yet to say which officers first approached Muhammad's SUV and initiated the pursuit.

That detail is "part of the investigation [and] isn't available at this time," said Sheriff's Office spokesman Andy Skoogman.

Police Cmdr. Garett Flesland said the four officers "were not placed on administrative leave," but he did not say whether their duties in the department have changed since the pursuit.

Interim Assistant City Manager Angel Smith released a statement late Thursday afternoon that said Brooklyn Center "is committed to a comprehensive investigation ... into this incident."

Once the Sheriff's Office investigation is complete, Smith added, the city will conduct its own internal review of the pursuit and crash.

Luckey and Salvosa were part of the scene that played out when Wright was fatally shot by Potter during a traffic stop. Both testified for the prosecution, which won a conviction that sent Potter to prison.

Luckey, driving under Potter's training supervision and guidance, had pulled over the 20-year-old Wright for expired tabs and an air freshener dangling from his rearview mirror. Wright resisted arrest for an outstanding weapons warrant when Potter, who mistakenly believed she was holding her Taser, shot Wright. He then drove off and soon crashed into another vehicle.

Salvosa, who was on his way to the traffic stop, saw Wright's head-on crash occur directly in front of him.

In January 2015, Salvosa shot Sinthanouxay Khottavongsa, 57, with a Taser during a brawl outside a laundromat. Khottavongsa fell, hit his head and suffered a severe head injury.

Salvosa said he saw Khottavongsa raise the crowbar as if to strike people nearby and feared for their safety. Khottavongsa's family reached an $825,000 civil settlement with the city.

In December 2014, Salvosa and a Hennepin County sheriff's deputy fatally shot 18-year-old Johnathan D. Mar, of Kennewick, Wash., after a pursuit that spanned 18 miles and reached up to 115 mph until Mar crashed in Shoreview.

Mar was suspected of killing partner Matthew Paul Maffei, 23, with a gunshot to the head at a rest stop off Interstate 94 in Maple Grove. He allegedly came at the officers with a knife.

A Ramsey County grand jury found that there wasn't enough evidence to charge Salvosa or the deputy, Matthew Hagen, with a crime.