A man hanging onto a fleeing vehicle outside a Bloomington hotel while struggling with a passenger fell to the pavement, hit his head and died, according to police and newly released court records.
Man hanging onto fleeing SUV outside Twin Cities hotel falls to pavement and dies, police say
Bloomington police said they are still looking for the driver involved in the deadly Jan. 25 incident.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
February 14, 2025 at 1:58PM
Police said the incident occurred shortly before 10 p.m. on Jan. 25 in the parking lot of the Renaissance Hotel near the Interstate 494 and Hwy. 100 interchange and led to the death on Jan. 30 of 53-year-old John Lewis Tepley.
Deputy Police Chief Kimberly Clauson said Thursday the driver of the vehicle, an SUV, “did not stay. Detectives have a pretty good idea of who that is. No arrest, but we are getting statements to follow up on. ... We don’t think the driver knew [Tepley] was severely injured.”
Search warrant affidavits filed by police in Hennepin County District Court seek permission to search Tepley’s cellphone for clues as part of their investigation.
According to the affidavits:
A police detective was told that Tepley was in Full Tilt Tavern in Bloomington on the night of the incident and met with a woman who “solicits older males.” They left together in the SUV. Police have identified the woman, who is 30 years old and has convictions in the Twin Cities and Texas for engaging in prostitution.
The hotel’s exterior surveillance video showed the SUV arriving at the front door. Tepley walked toward the hotel while the woman “quickly gets into the rear passenger door side seat and closes the door.”
In response, Tepley turned around, opened the rear passenger door “and a struggle ensues with the door.”
As Tepley and the woman clashed over the door, the driver “begins to accelerate rapidly.”
Tepley was “violently pulled to the ground, striking his head on the pavement” and was knocked unconscious.
The driver slowed down after Tepley fell but never stopped to check on his well-being and has yet to be found as of late Thursday afternoon.
Tepley’s family told police that he arrived in the Twin Cities on Jan. 22 on a work assignment and was scheduled to check out of the Comfort Inn near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Feb. 19.
They also are charged with allegedly barging into an occupied Loring Park apartment with guns drawn in pursuit of a safe they failed to find.
