‘NO IDEA’

911 Call: South Dakota Attorney General Didn’t Know What His Car Hit

In a statement, he said he thought he hit a deer, but that’s not what he told a police dispatcher the night of an accident that left a man dead.

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg told a 911 dispatcher that he had “no idea” what he hit the night he fatally struck a man on the road while driving home from a political shindig. “It sure hit me, smashed my windshield,” the AG said in the call, according to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. When the dispatcher asked if it was a deer, Ravnsborg said, “I have no idea... Yeah, it could be, I mean it was right in the roadway.” A statement issued by Ravnsborg on Sept. 14 said he believed he likely hit a deer and did not learn that he actually struck 55-year-old Joseph Boever until he returned to the scene the next morning. A transcript of the call was released along with toxicology results that showed Ravnsborg had no alcohol in his blood—although the sample wasn’t taken for 15 hours, so if he had been drinking, it wouldn’t show up. He has said he did not drink at the dinner.