An Andover man tried to conceal from police at the scene that he was drunk when he hit another car in Fridley and killed the other motorist, according to charges filed Wednesday.
Emmanuel Seekie, 30, was charged in Anoka County District Court with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the collision early Monday evening at the intersection of East River Road and 42nd Avenue NE.
Seekie appeared in court Wednesday morning and remains jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail. An attorney for Seekie said it was too early for the defense to respond to questions about the allegations.
Killed was David L. Alfuth, of Minneapolis, the Midwest medical examiner's office said Wednesday. Alfuth was declared dead at the scene one day before what would have been his 61st birthday.
Alfuth grew up in northeast Minneapolis as one of seven siblings, said older sister April Alfuth. He served in the Army for three years in the early 1980s and was stationed in Germany in that time, she said.
According to the criminal complaint:
Witnesses said Alfuth was turning from westbound 42nd to southbound East River Road. Seekie was on northbound East River Road, ran the red light and hit Alfuth's Subaru.
One witness said she believes Seekie "was traveling at a very high rate of speed" when entering the intersection, the charging document read.
Other witnesses saw Seekie driving erratically shortly before the collision, sometimes traveling on the wrong side of East River Road at one point.
Officers located Seekie at the scene and detected "a strong odor of alcoholic beverage" from him. His eyes were bloodshot and watery. He told police he had one beer in the past hour.
Police efforts to assess Seekie's degree of intoxication proved difficult. He stopped cooperating during the field sobriety test, claiming he couldn't stand on one leg because of an unspecified handicap.
When police attempted to give him a preliminary breath test, Seekie drew in a breath several times rather than exhaling into the device.
A search warrant was executed at nearby Unity Hospital, where authorities collected a blood sample. Test results from that are pending.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
