A 9-year-old boy chasing a ball into the street in Northeast Minneapolis was struck by a car Sunday evening, and the driver got out and ran away on foot, leaving the child with minor injuries and scratches. The collision happened at about 7:48 p.m. near Quincy Street and Northeast 26th Avenue.
According to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, first responders arrived to find the boy with only minor injuries, and investigators say he was struck or brushed by the car while chasing the ball into the roadway. The outlet reports the boy's mother told police she may still bring him in for further evaluation, even though he was not transported to the hospital by ambulance at the scene. Police have made no arrests and are searching for the driver, who left the scene on foot rather than stopping to check on the child.
What Minnesota Law Says About Fleeing a Crash
Leaving the scene of a crash that causes personal injury is a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $3,000 fine, or a felony carrying up to three years if the crash results in great bodily harm or death. The firm notes that failure to stop is prosecuted as its own criminal offense, regardless of who caused the underlying collision — meaning the driver in this case could face charges independent of any determination about fault for the initial contact with the child.
This is not the first time a Minneapolis driver has abandoned a crash scene on foot this year. In March, police investigated a high-speed hit-and-run on the 1600 block of Marshall Street NE that left a woman in her 20s with life-threatening injuries before the driver fled, as reported by FOX 9. Hoodline covered that Marshall Street hit-and-run at the time, and in April reported on a fatal daytime hit-and-run on Chicago Avenue that sent police searching for a white van.
Why Speed and Street Design Matter for Kids Underfoot
City of Minneapolis Vision Zero data shows that roughly 160 people were killed or seriously injured in traffic crashes across the city each year between 2017 and 2025. Separate city data compiled between 2020 and 2024 found that 64 percent of all fatal and serious injury crashes occurred on just 10 percent of Minneapolis streets, those designated as High Injury Streets, according to Patch.
Speed plays an outsized role in whether a pedestrian survives being hit. The same Vision Zero statistics, published in September, indicate a pedestrian struck by a vehicle traveling 20 mph faces a 13 percent risk of serious injury or death, while speeding was a factor in 80 percent of fatal crashes citywide in 2024. Minneapolis lowered speed limits on most city-owned residential streets to 20 mph in 2020 specifically to reduce the severity of impacts like the one near Quincy Street.
Not every Minneapolis hit-and-run ends with only minor injuries. In May 2025, Hennepin County prosecutors charged a driver with second-degree murder and attempted murder after sequential hit-and-run collisions in Minneapolis killed one pedestrian and injured three others, according to MPR News.
What Comes Next in the Investigation
It remains unclear whether the driver who struck the boy near Quincy Street and 26th Avenue NE will be identified, whether the vehicle involved was registered to that person, or whether nearby security footage exists that could aid the search. Police have not announced an arrest, and the case remains an open investigation.
