MN Woman, 20, Was Watching TikTok Before Fatal Crash: Police

DETROIT LAKES, MN — A 20-year-old Detroit Lakes woman is accused of watching TikTok videos before crashing into a pedestrian, killing him, last fall.

Mariska Kay Nunn was charged last month with one count of criminal vehicular homicide. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000.

At 12:15 p.m. on Sept. 3, the Detroit Lakes Police Department responded to a report of a pedestrian struck by a motor vehicle on Randolph Road.

Officers found a man lying in the eastbound lane. A Ford Focus was parked in the westbound lane, its windshield damaged and the driver’s side mirror broken off.

The victim, who was breathing and able to speak, was transported by ambulance to the Detroit Lakes Airport. He died from his injuries at approximately 1 p.m.

Police spoke with the driver, later identified as Nunn, who said she was driving home on County Highway 25 from her boyfriend’s residence in Frazee, according to the criminal complaint.

Nunn stated she was traveling westbound on Randolph Road and did not see the victim in the roadway, police said. She also said her phone was on her lap at the time of the collision, the criminal complaint states.

Nunn later admitted to police that she had been watching a TikTok video when the crash occurred, police said. Her phone was seized as evidence.

A forensic extraction of Nunn’s cell phone revealed that TikTok videos were viewed at 12:08:40, 12:10:50, 12:12:40, 12:12:52, and 12:14:05. The 911 call to report the accident was made at 12:15 p.m., police said.

An autopsy by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the victim’s cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries sustained in the collision.

A crash reconstruction report found Nunn’s vehicle struck the victim on the right side of his body with the front driver’s corner. The victim was propelled onto the hood, striking the windshield and roofline before rotating and hitting the driver’s side mirror and window. The victim then landed in the eastbound lane next to the vehicle.