PICTURED: Mom-of-three restaurant worker and nurse killed when driver plowed into patio – as records show suspect had two previous drunk driving convictions
A mother of three, working in a restaurant, and a nurse were tragically killed on Sunday evening when a driver drove his vehicle onto the restaurant’s patio.
Kristina Folkerts, 30, was working on the crowded patio of Park Tavern in St. Louis Park, Missouri, around 8 p.m. when a driver — who has since been identified as Steven Frane Bailey, 56 — drove his car into the crowd.
Folkerts, who had followed in her mother’s footsteps as a waitress at Park Tavern and had recently started a relationship with a coworker, was trapped under the vehicle, reports the Minnesota Star Tribune.
According to Zach Winslow, who was on the scene that night as a manager, it took nearly 10 officers to lift the car off her.
Also killed in the crash was Gabe Harvey, an ICU nurse at nearby Methodist Hospital. She was out celebrating a colleague who was quitting her nursing job after seven years to go to CRNA school. according to an online fundraiser.
Kristina Folkerts, 30, and Gabe Harvey, an ICU nurse at nearby Methodist Hospital, were killed when a driver drove into the patio of Park Tavern in St. Louis Park on Sunday night
Police said Bailey was seen on surveillance footage walking into the parking lot but not entering the restaurant.
He was then spotted attempting to park, but instead drove onto the patio, where generations of residents have held their baby showers, school reunions and even wedding receptions.
“It looked like something out of a movie,” said Terry Freeman, Park Tavern’s general manager and the owner’s brother-in-law.
“He drove around a car and went right through it. He ended up on that hill by the flowers.”
Customers kept the driver in his vehicle until police arrived on the scene about two minutes later, Winslow told the Star Tribune.
Bailey was subsequently booked into the Hennepin County Jail at approximately 12:10 a.m. Monday on suspicion of two counts of criminal vehicular manslaughter.
Steven Frane Bailey, 56, was booked into the Hennepin County Jail around 12:10 a.m. Monday on suspicion of two counts of criminal vehicular manslaughter
He remained in jail without bail over the Labor Day holiday, pending charges that could be filed as early as Tuesday. City officials are now trying to determine whether drugs or alcohol may have contributed to the crash.
Minnesota court documents obtained by the Star Tribune show Bailey has at least two previous drunken driving convictions: fourth-degree driving under the influence of alcohol, a misdemeanor in Waseca County in 2014, and third-degree driving under the influence of alcohol, a felony in Hennepin County in 2015.
As the investigation into the fatal crash continues, local residents are gathering around the restaurant and hospital to show their support.
They describe Park Tavern as a bar similar to the one from the TV series Cheers, only ten times bigger.
According to police, Bailey was caught on surveillance video pulling into the parking lot around 8 p.m. and driving at a high rate of speed onto the patio.
It is unclear whether Bailey was using drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash
Folkerts even grew up in the restaurant, where her mother, Lauralee, worked as a waitress for decades before dying of ovarian cancer in 2008 when she was just 14 years old. according to FOX 9.
Some of the waitresses even babysat her when she was a little girl, and the staff at Park Tavern helped her cope with the loss of her mother.
She now leaves behind three daughters of her own, aged from one to seven, for whom the Inn is raise money to support. As of Monday evening, the online fundraiser had raised more than $63,000 for the family.
“Kristina was just one of the family. And her mother worked for us too,” owner Phil Weber told CBS News.
“In the time we’ve been here, quite a few people have died, but not like this,” he said.
“And this is just, you know, horrific. I mean, nobody can even believe that this is what happened.”
Many considered the restaurant a safe place to hang out.
“It’s the memories of your kids coming here after a hockey game, of summer nights listening to music,” said Terri Lundquist, 68, a customer for nearly 40 years.
“It’s a place where you relax and meet people. Not a place where you get run over.”
The restaurant was also a favorite hangout for Methodist Hospital employees. “They’re just great guys,” Weber told CBS News. The Tavern also hosted a weekly party for retirees.
But the final celebration turned into tragedy when Harvey was killed.
He worked in the hospital for many years and was a department coordinator for intensive care.
“He worked his way up to being an ICU nurse and he’s one of the best at it,” Dr. Thomas Stark told Fox 9.
“He’s a wonderful, kind person, wonderful with patients and wonderful with their families,” Stark said, add to KSTP that Harvey ‘kept everything going in the intensive care unit.’
An online fundraiser to help his partner Denzel with funeral and living expenses also reported: ‘Gabe hasn’t met a single person he hasn’t impressed.
“He always had a smile and a kind word for everyone.”
Other fundraisers were also set up for the nurses injured in the accident on Sunday night, including the nurse who was celebrating her last day.
That nurse, Laura Knutsen, suffered “extensive fractures and numerous traumatic injuries,” one of the online fundraisers sayjust like her friend Tegan D’Albani.
A fourth ICU nurse, Theo Larsen, was admitted to the North Memorial Neuro ICU with multiple skull, facial and orbital fractures, a says a fundraiser for his medical expenses.
“We mourn the loss of a beloved and respected colleague and friend to many here at Methodist Hospital and HealthPartners,” a hospital spokesperson said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with our colleague’s family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.
“Our focus in the coming days will be on supporting our colleagues and the loved ones of those affected by this tragedy,” the spokesperson continued.
“The close relationships our colleagues have with each other are one of the things that makes Methodist so special.”
Park Tavern will also remain closed on Tuesday to “support and care for our employees and neighbors.”
A memorial and fundraising event for the victims will be held later. Weber also plans to plant a tree in memory of the victims.
“We’re going to get through this and we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing,” he said. “We have no other choice.”