10/2/2022
North Dakota – A North Dakota man who prosecutors say intentionally ran over an 18-year-old at a street dance has been charged with murder. Shannon Brandt, 41, was initially charged with criminal vehicular homicide in the Sept. 18 killing of Cayler Ellingson, but that charge has been dropped.
According to a probable cause affidavit released Friday, Brandt told a 911 dispatcher that if it was a total accident he wouldn’t be so scared, “but I know it was more than that.”
B randt initially told authorities that there had been a political argument and that Ellingson was part of a “Republican extremist group.” Many conservatives took to social media to decry the alleged motive in Ellingson’s death. But investigators have said the case was not political in nature and that there is no evidence to support Brandt’s claim that Ellingson was a Republican extremist.
Brandt’s attorney, Mark Friese, said Friday that he would not comment yet because the Ellingson family is grieving, the community is in mourning, and he hasn’t received all of the case background.
The hit-and-run occurred early Sunday, after a Saturday night street dance in McHenry, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Bismarck.
According to an initial probable cause affidavit, Brandt told investigators that he struck Ellingson “because he had a political argument with the pedestrian and believed the pedestrian was calling people to come get him.”
He allegedly asked the dispatcher if he was going to go to prison. He told the dispatcher that Ellingson wasn’t going to let him go and “I hit him and I didn’t mean to and he’s subdued I was scared to death but he’s subdued, he can’t do anything to me now.”
Brandt later said: “I almost oh god, I almost just runaway but I thought jeez obviously if it was a total accident I wouldn’t be scared but I know it was more than that,” according to the affidavit.
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