Woman arrested after teenager dies and five injured in hit-and-run in downtown Minneapolis

A 16-year-old girl was killed and five other people were injured early Saturday morning when a wrong-way driver struck a group of people on a downtown Minneapolis street, police said.

Authorities tracked down the suspect in north Minneapolis and arrested 22-year-old Latalia Anjolie Margalli. She was booked into the Hennepin County Jail on suspicion of murder.

According to preliminary police reports, the incident began around midnight with an altercation between numerous people in the middle of N. 5th Street at Hennepin Avenue. A woman, believed to be Margalli, got into an SUV, backed up on Hennepin and then drove the wrong way on 5th Street and into a crowd of people, police said.

According to police, who received the hit-and-run call at 12:23 a.m., witnesses followed the suspect as she drove out of downtown. Minneapolis police, Hennepin County Sheriff's Office officers and State Patrol officers stopped the suspect's vehicle in the 2300 block of Bryant Avenue N. and arrested Margalli.

Six people were taken to HCMC in downtown Minneapolis, including the 16-year-old girl who died at the hospital. One person had possibly life-threatening injuries and four others suffered what appeared to be non-critical injuries, police said.

Court records show Margalli was convicted of driving with a suspended license in Washington County on New Year's Eve and was convicted of driving after a suspended license in 2020. It was unclear Saturday whether her license is currently suspended.

Margalli pleaded guilty in 2022 to fifth-degree assault for hitting her 14-year-old sister, who claimed Margalli was angry because she had boys over. Doctors told officials the 14-year-old had suffered a ruptured carotid artery that could lead to a stroke or death. According to court documents, Margalli admitted she had been ill and was “being treated for a nervous or mental illness.”

This is a developing story, please check back later for updates.