Man charged with criminal vehicular homicide for drunken crash that killed two

A Minneapolis man now faces felony charges for being drunk when he caused a Friday morning crash that killed a New Brighton couple.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Luis Tipantuna, 31, Friday with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide. His first court appearance is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

Tipantuna is accused of being drunk behind the wheel at 8:45 a.m. Feb. 16 while traveling west on I-694 in Arden Hills. Video footage and witness testimonies suggest that Tipantuna was driving erratically before the accident. He reportedly changed lanes often without signaling, weaved in and out of traffic, and traveled completely off the roadway. Investigators say Tipantuna lost control of his sedan and spun right across all lanes of I-694, striking a sedan with enough force to push the car in front of an oncoming semitrailer truck.

That truck struck another vehicle broadside, killing 74-year-old Karin Leigh O’Connor and 76-year-old Curtis John O’Connor of New Brighton. Tipantuna and the semitrailer truck driver were taken to Regions Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Tipantuna was arrested shortly after the crash. As officers arrested him, they found open bottles of alcohol and reported the inside of his vehicle smelled strongly of alcohol. The 31-year-old slipped in and out of consciousness after the crash, performing poorly on a field sobriety test and registering a blood alcohol concentration of .218. The legal limit is .08.

Star Tribune staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.