ANOKA, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota prosecutors have charged a Michigan firefighter with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in a crash that killed two fellow firefighters and injured seven more as they drove to Utah to fight a wildfire.
The criminal complaint against 28-year-old Michael Allen Johnson, of Baraga, Michigan, says he told investigators he had not slept in more than 24 hours except for a 45-minute nap early Saturday before the crash about 3 p.m. Saturday.
Twenty-three-year-old James Shelifoe and 25-year-old Alan Swartz died in the crash on Interstate 35W in the Minneapolis suburb of Blaine. The State Patrol says the truck left the highway, struck the median cable barriers and rolled.
The crew was from the Baraga-based Beartown Firefighters, which is managed by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.