Man sentenced for fatally striking pedestrian in Minneapolis

By KSTP

Tiwan Darnell Puller (Photo Courtesy: Hennepin County Sheriff's Office)

A man who pleaded guilty to fatally striking a woman with a BMW as she was crossing the street was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Tiwan Darnell Puller, 31, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal vehicular homicide for the death of 21-year-old Alexandra Joyce Renee Perkins of Minneapolis.

He changed his initial not guilty plea to guilty on January 19 and was sentenced the same day.

A criminal complaint alleges Puller was driving a BMW southbound on Interstate 94 around 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 14 2022 when he rear-ended a Volkswagen before speeding off at “about 80 miles an hour” and taking the exit ramp to Broadway Avenue West.

Puller then drove through a yellow light at Broadway and hit Perkins, who was standing at the intersection, the complaint states. He then continued onto the ramp back to I-94 before crashing into a concrete barrier and a metal guardrail.

Responding Minnesota State Patrol troopers say they saw Puller fall out of the passenger side of the BMW following the crash. Puller then spoke to the trooper who approached him.

“I f—ed up, sir,” Puller said, according to court documents. “I hit somebody. She is over there and I think she is dead.”

The complaint states that Puller admitted to speeding through the intersection and hitting someone at the beginning of the ramp onto I-94, sending the victim “high in the sky.”

Perkins was pronounced dead at the scene.

The trooper stated that he smelled marijuana and alcohol on Puller and that he had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. He was also driving with a revoked license.