Driver who fatally rammed protester in Minneapolis had licence revoked for being ‘danger to public safety’

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Late on Sunday night, Mr Kraus, who is being held in jail without bail on suspected vehicular homicide, allegedly sped through a Minneapolis intersection where protesters have been demonstrating since local members of a multi-agency federal taskforce shot and killed 32-year-old Winston Boogie Smith, a Black man whom they were pursuing on an alleged weapons violation, in a parking garage earlier this month. According to court records, Mr Kraus had numerous DWI convictions, and had his driver’s licence revoked because he was a “danger to public safety,” data journalist Tony Webster reported. Unlike previous incidents in Minneapolis, there’s no police body or dashboard camera of Mr Smith’s death, even though a Department of Justice policy allowed local law enforcement officers to wear body cameras on federal task forces. A female passenger who was riding with Mr Smith at the time of his death also contradicted the police account that he drew a weapon and fired at officers, telling journalists via her attorneys that she “never saw a gun on Winston Smith leading up to the shooting and she never saw a gun inside the vehicle — at any time.” More than 100 people have been hit by cars at Black Lives Matter protests since last summer, as counter-protesters increasingly use cars as deadly weapons to target racial justice campaigners — most famously during the 2017 Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally, where James Alex Fields, Jr murdered a rights protester named Heather Heyer.