Jury selection started Tuesday in Hennepin County in the vehicular homicide trial of Derrick Thompson.
Thompson is accused in the death of five young Somali women in a car crash two years ago.
Prosecutors say Thompson was speeding on Interstate 35W when a state trooper began following him. After taking the Lake Street exit into Minneapolis, he sped through a red light and crashed into the car carrying the women.
A jury in St. Paul has already found Derrick Thompson guilty on all federal counts in the 2023 crash. That trial focused on Thompson's illegal possession of drugs and guns.
This is a separate state trial on murder and criminal vehicular homicide charges brought by Hennepin County.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced last September that she's adding 3rd degree murder charges against him. Thompson is already charged with 10 counts of criminal vehicular homicide in the case.
Thompson is the son of former Minnesota State Rep. John Thompson.
Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, Sahra Liban Gesaade, Sagal Burhaan Hersi, Siham Adan Odhowa and Sabiriin Mohamoud Ali were killed in the crash. The women were running errands together before a friend's wedding the next day.
"It is a painful moment for these families to remind them to go through this process again, but they're also hopeful in kind of moving forward and bringing justice for for their daughters," says Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Hussein adds the tragedy for the community was far-reaching.
"It impacted all of us," he says. "It impacted, I think, obviously the Somali community, but it also impacted the overwhelming majority of the Minnesotans who were shocked to learn, you know, five young girls to die in the way that they did."