St. Paul Man Sentenced In Killing Of Black Lives Matter Protester

MINNEAPOLIS — A 36-year-old St. Paul man was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years in prison in the June 2021 killing of a Black Lives Matter protester in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis.

Nicholas D. Kraus pleaded guilty to second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree assault last month.

On June 13, 2021, Minneapolis police were dispatched to Lake Street West and Girard Avenue South after a car accelerated into a crowd of peaceful protesters, according to the criminal complaint.

Kraus was identified as the driver and hit Deona M. Knajdek with the car, authorities said. Knajdek and others were demonstrating against the police shooting death of Winston Boogie Smith Jr., a 32-year-old Black man fatally shot earlier that month.

At the scene, officers found Knajdek lying on the street with severe trauma to her head. She was unresponsive, police said. An ambulance took her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Surveillance video showed Kraus crashing into a parked vehicle and then driving into the crowd of protesters, the criminal complaint said.