Police: Teen was riding scooter on Twin Cities sidewalk when unlicensed SUV driver fatally hit him

A teenager was riding an electric scooter on the sidewalk when an unlicensed SUV driver struck and killed him in Brooklyn Park over the weekend, according to police and state records.

The crash occurred at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday along Regent Avenue N. near the intersection with Unity Avenue N., police said.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the teenager as 17-year-old Martin Espino Martinez, of Brooklyn Park.

Espino Martinez was taken by emergency medical responders to North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale and died there about 30 minutes later, the examiner’s office said.

The SUV driver, Ontwan Lupree Collins, 47, of Brooklyn Center, remained at the scene of the crash and spoke with police, according to a search warrant affidavit filed the next day in Hennepin County District Court.

The affidavit cleared the way for police to examine the SUV’s data recorder as they and the State Patrol investigate the crash ahead of potential charges.

Police inspector Elliot Faust said the patrol’s crash reconstruction investigation “hopefully can tell us” why Collins drove onto the sidewalk.

Collins has not returned messages from the Minnesota Star Tribune asking for his recollection of the crash.

At the time of the crash, Collins was behind the wheel with revoked driving privileges, a state Department of Public Safety spokesman said.

State court records show that Collins has been convicted six times for driving after license revocation and once for drunken driving.

Espino Martinez was a student at Park Center High School and was with other young people at the time of the crash, said Joel Vaquera, a friend of the family.

According to the affidavit:

Officers arrived to find Espino Martinez down in the intersection with severe head injuries, unconscious and not breathing. He was not wearing a helmet, nor did he have lights on himself or the scooter.

Collins told police he was heading west on Regent and turning left onto Unity when he struck the teenager while the scooter was heading east on Regent on the sidewalk.

He said he “did not see the [scooter] until it was too late,” the filing read. “He attempted to stop but was unable to stop in time.”

Officers said they saw no signs that Collins was impaired by alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash.