13-year-old girl killed in police pursuit crash was fleeing foster home

A Native American teenage girl killed in a pursuit by an Itasca County sheriff’s deputy over the weekend was running away from her foster home, according to her family.

Angelica Bryan, 13, of Cass Lake, Minn., was driving a minivan without headlights around 1:30 a.m. Sunday when the deputy activated his lights on County Road 63 in western Cohasset Township, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The BCA and family on Wednesday identified Bryan as the victim in the deadly high-speed chase.

The BCA said the minivan accelerated, at times reaching speeds over 90 mph. A trooper with the State Patrol unsuccessfully deployed a tire deflation device during the pursuit. The minivan continued to flee before leaving the road and crashing into a tree. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene.

Bryan’s mother, Jeannie Wittner, said her daughter was placed with a foster family in Grand Rapids, Minn., that night and she was driving back to be home in Cass Lake.

“That’s all she wanted,” Wittner said Wednesday morning while on her way to the funeral home to make funeral arrangements.

In its preliminary investigation, the BCA found the minivan was stolen that night from a residence in Cohasset, Minn. The BCA said it had no further details to share, and any information on the deputy would need to come from the Itasca County Sheriff’s Office.

A data request was made with Sheriff Joe Dasovich to learn more about the deputy and whether he is on standard administrative leave.

The agency’s pursuit policy advises deputies “to protect all persons and property to the extent reasonably possible,” noting that pursuits present a danger to the public, officers and suspects.

Dasovich said in a statement that his agency is “deeply saddened by this motor vehicle crash that resulted in the loss of life and extend our deepest condolences to all those affected by this tragedy.”

MacKenzie Johnson said in an interview that her little sister was an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and a seventh grader at Cass Lake Middle School. The school said additional grief counselors and resources are available to Bryan’s friends.

Johnson believes that law enforcement officers were doing their job, but she said her little sister didn’t know how to drive.

“Being 13 years old, you’re scared, you don’t know how to turn on headlights or if there’s running lights and you can see a little bit, you just think they’re on,” she said. “But the pursuit I feel like was a little excessive. At what point do you slow down and back off and hope they just slow down?”

She said the foster care system and social worker failed Bryan because she was a flight risk who had previously been in a stolen car with friends. “I don’t think any social worker gave her the help she truly needed,” Johnson said, adding that her sister was in an emergency foster care placement and needed more supervision.

“I can’t even imagine what she was feeling at the time, for her to feel the need to steal a car,” she said. “She shouldn’t have been able to run away... She’s obviously very traumatized.”

Native American youth are significantly overrepresented in the foster care system. In Minnesota, they are 16 times more likely than white peers to be in foster care, according to the state’s Department of Human Services.

In an online fundraiser to cover funeral expenses, Johnson described her sister’s personality as ”absolutely beautiful.”

“That girl could never get enough sunlight and fresh air. She was a makeup artist in training, a genuine little beauty queen. She stood up for what she believed in and took pride in who she was.”

The pursuit and crash remain under investigation by the BCA.