From bridge collapse to Islamic State
Now, according to court testimony in a federal terrorism trial, Roble — one of the 145 people injured in the Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people — is believed to be in Syria with the Islamic State terror group.
Roble and four of his siblings were on the bus that was carrying 52 students and several adults when the Interstate 35W span collapsed Aug. 1, 2007. All of the occupants of their bus survived.
For his injuries, a 2009 state court order says, Roble was due to receive a lump sum payment of $65,431.22 on his 18th birthday — roughly a month and a half before federal prosecutors say he left the U.S. for Turkey.
Roble's name surfaced in federal court last week during the trial of three Minnesota men accused of conspiring to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State. Testimony has suggested that at least some of the men in the group knew Roble had money and asked him to fund their own trips. One man believed Roble had gone to Syria with thousands of dollars and used it to pay for weddings for fighters and cars.
The bridge collapse wasn't mentioned at the trial. The Associated Press made the connection using state court records to trace the bridge collapse victim to a Minneapolis high school, then matched the victim's yearbook picture to a photo the government has provided of the young man believed to be in Syria. A handful of people who knew the family also confirmed the match.
The FBI has said that roughly a dozen young men have left Minnesota to join militant groups in Syria in recent years.