Crystal Restaurant Works To Help Victims of Park Tavern Tragedy
Sunday evening at Park Tavern in St. Louis Park, a man drove his car into a packed patio.
Kristina Folkerts, a Park Tavern waitress, and Gabe Harvey, an employee from nearby Methodist Hospital, were killed and several others injured.
Now, following the tragedy, the community has rallied to support the victims.
“It’s just very sad. There are good people here,” said Kathleen Sullivan, who visited Park Tavern Tuesday morning to lay down flowers at a memorial that sprung up in the restaurant’s parking lot.
“Why would anybody want to take the young server’s life, with the children? It just breaks my heart. Makes me mad,” said Sullivan.
That server was 30-year-old Kristina Folkerts, a mother of three who was working the busy patio that night.
“Her sister and I were in school together from K through 8th grade,” said Charlene Freeman, general manager of Milton’s in Crystal. “Her mother trained me in, actually, and trained my sisters and my sister-in-law.”
Freeman’s dad owns the Park Tavern and says all of the staff at both restaurants are like family.
“I am here at Milton’s right now and I’ve had numerous people come in just to give me a hug or to see how my mom and my dad are doing,” Freeman said.
Charlene Freeman is the general manager of Milton’s in Crystal. Her father owns the Park Tavern in St. Louis Park.
Supporting the victims
While the last couple days have been tough, Freeman says the outpouring of support has been overwhelming, as evidenced by the memorial that sprung up outside of her dad’s restaurant, and the donations that have come in on the various GoFundMe pages that were set up for the people involved in Sunday’s incident.
“I hate the fact that something like this has to happen for us to know how much the community is there, because we are actually more there for each other than we actually like to think,” Freeman said.
Charges filed
Meanwhile, police identified the driver of the car as 56-year-old Steven Bailey of St. Louis Park. Bailey had a BAC of .325 at the time of fatal Park Tavern crash. Bailey faces two counts of criminal vehicular homicide for intoxication and negligence and nine counts of criminal vehicular operation of varying levels of severity, depending on the injuries of each victim.
According to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, officers approached Bailey’s vehicle and heard him on the phone saying, “I hit the gas instead of the brake and went right through a thing” and “I’m probably going to jail.”
Steven Bailey Bailey faces two counts of criminal vehicular homicide for intoxication and negligence and nine counts of criminal vehicular operation.
