St Paul security guard pleads guilty to shooting bus driver
St Paul MN Aug 28 2019
The St. Paul man accused of shooting a school bus driver last winter after a minor crash on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis pleaded guilty Monday.
Kenneth Walter Lilly, 32, dropped his self-defense claims and pleaded guilty to first-degree assault causing great bodily harm in Hennepin County District Court. He was originally charged with attempted murder and second-degree assault.
Asked why prosecutors did not pursue the attempted murder charge, Hennepin County attorney’s office spokesman Chuck Laszewski said: “They’re very similar charges (attempted murder and first-degree assault) as far as severity — Assault 1 is the highest assault you can have. They’re close.”
Lilly’s attorney said he had nothing to add when reached Monday.
In February, Lilly shot and wounded a school bus driver after a minor crash during snowy weather on I-35W just south of downtown Minneapolis.
According to the criminal complaint, Lilly walked in front of a small school bus that had scraped his car and repeatedly shot through the windshield at the driver inside.
Benson, who wasn’t aware the vehicles had made contact while merging onto Interstate 94, had first refused to let Lilly try to board the bus because of a child passenger.
The gunfire grazed the head of the bus driver, 78-year-old Thomas Benson, and struck his left arm. An 8-year-old child also was on the bus, but was not injured.
Lilly initially claimed he acted in self-defense, saying that Benson drove the bus toward him.
Lilly, a security guard, was in his uniform at the time of the shooting. He had a permit to carry a handgun.
According to a written statement by Benson’s attorney, Minneapolis-based James B. Sheehy, the driver “sustained serious injuries. Mr. Benson is now deaf in his left ear.
“Mr. Benson was also shot in his left hand and arm. He sustained nerve injuries to his hand and arm,” the statement added. “Because of his hand injury he will not be able to work as a bus driver again.”
In 2015, Lilly fatally shot a 16-year-old boy who was trying to rob him at a Mississippi River overlook on St. Paul’s Summit Avenue. The Ramsey County attorney’s office did not charge him after determining the shooting was legally justified.
Lilly’s sentencing in the Minneapolis case is scheduled for Oct. 31.
Twin Cities
