ROSEVILLE, Minn., Sept. 17 (UPI) -- One of two Army recruiters hit by an SUV in Roseville, Minn., Tuesday was dragged nearly a mile despite asking the driver for help, police said.
The two recruiters, clad in camouflage fatigues, were on their way back to work after lunch when the motorist, traveling about 10 mph, struck them in a crosswalk, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.
One recruiter, a 29-year-old Brooklyn Center man, was sent flying over the sport utility vehicle but wasn't seriously injured. The second recruiter, a 42-year-old Circle Pines man, was hospitalized with serious injuries that included two broken bones in his right leg and extensive abrasions to his buttocks. Their names had not been released.
Roseville police said the suspect, Enrico Darius Taylor, 52, of St. Paul, was arrested later when spotted on foot after abandoning the SUV, the newspaper said.
Roseville police Lt. Lorne Rosand said the seriously injured recruiter was caught in the vehicle's undercarriage and was dragged up to three-quarters of a mile before freeing himself. Rosand said at one point the driver got out, looked under the Jeep and then got back inside and continued driving.
"The recruiter even asked him for help, but [the driver] just sped away," Rosand said.
"If [the driver] just would have stopped, this man wouldn't have had to suffer these injuries."
As it is, the recruiter is expected to spend months recuperating, the newspaper said.
Taylor has an extensive criminal record and is not legally allowed to drive, Rosand said. He was being held on suspicion of criminal vehicular operation, but had not been formally charged, the Pioneer Press said.
