Pedestrian seriously injured in Deer River crash

A pedestrian from Walker was seriously injured in Deer River early Sunday morning.

According to the state patrol, 25-year-old Nicholas Reese was walking in the westbound lane of traffic on Highway 2 near the White Oak Casino around 3 in the morning when he was struck by a minivan, driven by 62-year-old Joseph Villeneuve of Deer River.

Reese was transported via Life Link to St. Mary’s Hospital in Duluth.

Villeneuve was uninjured.


Larissa Donovan was the News Director for the stations of Paul Bunyan Broadcasting and has been, almost without interruption, since Election Day 2016, through July 2023. She covered all the beats in north-central Minnesota, such as local government, crime, education, environment and social issues. She studied communications at Bemidji State University. You can follow along with Larissa's live tweets of meetings and events on Twitter!


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