Update: Police Release Name of Victim in Deadly Crash in Sauk Rapids

Originally published 10:07 a.m. July 31st, 2023

Updated 2:46 p.m. July 31st, 2023

(KNSI) – Police have released the name of the pedestrian killed in a suspected drunk driving crash in Sauk Rapids.

Officers were called around 11:00 p.m. on Friday after 47-year-old Kevin Donald Oehmen was hit near Benton Drive North and 8th Street North. Life-saving measures were attempted at the scene and at CentraCare – St. Cloud Hospital, where the Sauk Rapids man died.

Benton County Jail

According to the criminal complaint filed in Benton County District Court on Monday, 25-year-old Tyler Nies told officers he was driving his pickup truck north on Benton Drive in the righthand lane and saw a man walking in the grass next to the curb. Nies says the man stepped into the street as if he were going to cross the road. Nies told an investigator that he tried to slam on his brakes but could not stop. He told officers he had been drinking.

A witness at the scene told investigators he was in the left lane behind Nies, and then he suddenly veered into his lane and came to a stop. He said he didn’t see the pedestrian until after the crash. The witness “estimated both vehicles were traveling approximately five miles above the posted speed limit of 35 miles an hour.”

Officers administered field sobriety tests at the scene and a preliminary breath test. The criminal complaint says Nies’s blood alcohol concentration was .129.

Nies has been charged with criminal vehicular homicide and driving while impaired.

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