A St. Paul Police Department vehicle struck a man’s van last week, and police said the case is being investigated as a hit-and-run.
On the same day, the police department put Officer Nick Kellum on paid administrative leave. A police spokesman said state law doesn’t allow him to provide additional details about the reason.
In 2014, Kellum was charged with leaving the scene of an accident while on duty. He pleaded guilty to running a red light and prosecutors dropped the other charge, saying they did not have sufficient evidence to pursue the hit-and-run charge.
On Monday, reached by a Pioneer Press reporter and asked about the Thursday crash, Kellum only said, “It’s a medical situation.”
The crash was the first of two driving incidents allegedly involving St. Paul police employees in as many days. A civilian records clerk was cited for DWI, accused of driving while intoxicated to St. Paul police headquarters for her shift on Friday night.
The collision involving an unmarked police vehicle happened on Thursday on the East Side. It did not result in injuries to the driver whose van was struck. The van driver said his vehicle had minor damage to the rear bumper.
At about 1:10 p.m., police were sent to the parking lot of the SuperAmerica on Old Hudson Road at White Bear Avenue.
A 32-year-old man reported “the driver of a vehicle behind him had been driving erratically and bumped the rear bumper of the van he was driving” in the area of Third Street and White Bear Avenue, according to Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman.
The man saw the Jeep pull into SuperAmerica and he got the license plate number. He reported the driver of the striking vehicle got back into the vehicle and drove away, Linders said.
“Based on information from the complainant, police determined the Jeep is a St. Paul police vehicle,” Linders said. The vehicle is used by the department’s gang and gun unit.
Kellum has been assigned as a gang officer since last year.
St. Paul police asked the Minnesota State Patrol to investigate the crash to avoid “any conflicts,” Linders said. He said who was driving the vehicle is part of the investigation, as is whether the person was responding to a call or on duty.
A State Patrol spokeswoman said Monday that the investigation is underway.
OFFICER PREVIOUSLY DISCIPLINED, ALSO PRAISED
Kellum is the subject of another internal affairs investigation, opened on April 17. Information of that case has not been released.
Kellum has been disciplined eight times since he became a St. Paul police officer in 1999 — five times were oral or written reprimands and the others were suspensions.
He also has received accolades for his community outreach, was previously president of the National Black Police Association’s Minnesota chapter, and was among the St. Paul officers featured on Animal Planet’s show “K9 Cops” that originally aired in 2008 and 2009.
After an internal affairs investigation into the 2014 crash, then-Police Chief Thomas Smith gave Kellum two 10-day suspensions, half of which was held in abeyance for two years if he had no same or similar incidents. Kellum met those conditions, Police Chief Todd Axtell wrote in a February 2017 letter.
“This is not the first time your abilities and judgment as a police officer have been called into question,” Axtell wrote last year, pointing out that Kellum was suspended for 15 days after a 2009 case. “In that incident, it was determined you used extremely poor judgment in firing, one-handed, at a suspect from a distance of about 150 feet when fellow officers were standing downrange from you, while attempting to control your K9 with your other hand.”
The Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission concurred with the internal affairs investigation that Kellum’s firearm discharge was not justified, and the review commission recommended Kellum be terminated, according to a 2012 letter.
Smith suspended Kellum for 20 days, which was reduced to 15 days after one year of not being involved “in the same or similiar conduct,” Smith wrote to Kellum in 2012.
CLERK CITED FOR DWI AFTER DRIVING TO POLICE DEPARTMENT
In a separate case, someone informed a supervisor that an employee was possibly intoxicated at work at the police department on Friday, Linders said.
Gina Lynn Mitchell, a civilian working in the records unit, drove to work at police headquarters and her blood-alcohol concentration was found to be 0.14, according to a citation filed Monday. The legal limit to drive in Minnesota is 0.08.
It happened about 9:20 p.m., said the citation charging Mitchell, 48, with a misdemeanor.
An attorney for Mitchell was not listed in the court record and she could not be reached for comment Monday.
Sarah Horner contributed to this report.