Crash That Killed Pregnant Woman, Baby Leads To Homicide Charges

MINNEAPOLIS — A 36-year-old man was charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide in last week's crash in Minneapolis that killed a pregnant woman and her unborn baby. Police said Mark Franklin Jr. admitted to a first responder he used PCP prior to driving.

Authorities spoke with Franklin the day after the crash, and he also admitted he picked someone up in Champlin and they drove to North Minneapolis to buy PCP, according to the criminal complaint.

Franklin told authorities he didn't remember hitting any cars, but he woke up after the collision and saw the damage. The crash killed Ubah A. Hussein, 36, of Minneapolis, and her unborn child.

Minneapolis police officers were dispatched to the crash about 11 p.m. Thursday. At the scene, police found several vehicles smashed into each other, with one vehicle rolled over.

Investigators said Franklin had been going southbound on Newton Avenue — the wrong direction on the one-way northbound street. His SUV struck a parked vehicle in the 1400 block of Newton Avenue North and continued the wrong direction, police said.

He was driving at an "exceptionally high rate of speed" when he hit Hussein's minivan and several other vehicles in the 1300 block of Newton.

Minneapolis police and fire crews worked for nearly an hour trying to get Hussein out of her minivan. She and her unborn baby died before they could remove her, authorities said.