Man Charged After Allegedly Hitting a Person and Fleeing the Scene

(KNSI) — A 22-year-old Annandale man is jailed after allegedly running over a man in rural Wright County Saturday morning and fleeing the scene.

According to the criminal complaint, emergency responders went to the scene of an injury crash at about 1:30 and were told a man had fallen out of a pickup truck before the driver hit him and drove away. Officers found the victim, identified in court papers as 24-year-old Alexander Jack Hilsgen, lying in the westbound traffic lane near the main parking lot for Camp Friendship. Despite life saving measures, Hilsgen was pronounced dead. The complaint says a group of camp counselors had been drinking at a bar in Annandale when a guy in a pickup truck gave them a ride. Hilsgen was not a counselor but tagged along. Hilsgen’s hat blew out of the truck, and he wanted to get it. Someone in the truck’s bed tried to stop him but was unsuccessful. A witness said they felt a big bump after Hilsgen jumped out. One person in the truck’s cab said the driver, Joseph Schneider, said he thought he hit someone.

According to authorities, they went to the bar and obtained a receipt with Schneider’s name showing he paid for six mixed drinks. At 6:10 a.m., police went to Schneider’s home, and he admitted he was drinking at a bar in Annandale but said he had three mixed drinks. He said he gave a group from Camp Friendship a ride home but denied hitting anything. A blood sample was taken and sent for analysis to determine Schneider’s blood alcohol concentration, but he told police he continued drinking when he got home and said he would be over the legal limit.

Surveillance footage from Camp Friendship shows a truck running over Hilsgen, of Clearwater, and a loud bang is heard before the truck’s lights change direction. The truck is seen going into the parking lot, and the driver gets out and runs from the truck to the road where Hilsgen was lying and then back to the truck before driving off.

Schneider is charged in Wright County District Court with failing to stop after a collision causing injury or death and failing to notify police of a collision causing injury or death.

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