Son of former Minnesota Democrat lawmaker arrested, charged with murder after vehicle collision

A video of the horrifying incident shows Derrick John Thompson, 27, plowing into a car that was carrying five Somali women.

Thompson has a previous criminal record, which includes a 2018 hit-and-run incident that took place in California. The woman involved in the incident was in a coma for several weeks. As a result, he was given an eight-year sentence.

The vehicle Thompson was driving at the time of the incident was carrying 17 pounds of marijuana and $20,000 in cash, per Fox News.

Now Thompson is suspected of killing five women in Minneapolis after he was trying to get away from a police officer.

The Daily Mail reported that when the Santa Barbara County District Attorney was questioned about why Thompson was let out of prison, they did not provide a straight answer. They said that the state provides a “wide latitude to award additional custody credits, as well as, early parole opportunities.”

A representative for the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office said: “This is certainly a terrible heart wrenching story and our hearts go out to the families of the five young women who lost their lives.”

They continued: "Mr. Thompson received 577 days credit (for the time he spent in custody pending disposition) at the time of sentencing. Based on the fact that he was sentenced to a violent felony statutorily the defendant would have been required to serve 85% of his time, meaning he would have had close to 5.5 years left to serve from the time of sentencing.”

Thompson’s father, John Thompson, was expelled from the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in September 2021 for lying about being racially profiled by a police officer over his previous problems with the law. This included a domestic violence accusation.

He was officially unseated in November 2022.