22-year-old Driver Gets 4 Years for Killing Woman on Mobility Scooter
A 22-year-old Minneapolis man was sentenced Friday to just over four years in prison for fatally striking a woman who was on a mobility scooter last October.
Cameron Mikkel Bendson pleaded guilty in January to one count of criminal vehicular homicide.
Bendson was sentenced Mar. 4 to 50 months in prison and five years of probation, with credit for 144 days already served in jail.
He was accused of running a red light around 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 11, 2021 near W. Broadway Ave. & Aldrich Ave. N. in Minneapolis.
In the crosswalk on W. Broadway Ave. was a woman on a mobility scooter, who had the right-of-way with a green light on Aldrich, court documents said. Family members identified the woman as Rosie Lee Means, 70.
Bendson was driving a white Jeep Grand Cherokee westbound on W. Broadway when he struck Means, throwing her off the scooter and across the intersection, the documents said.
The stoplight on W. Broadway was red at the time, and Bendson continued driving south from W. Broadway after the crash.
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The force of the collision destroyed the scooter, with debris scattered through the intersection. Officers arrived at the scene and found Means in the middle of the intersection and unconscious, with a small group of people crowded around her. CCTV video nearby corroborated witness statements, who also gave officers a physical description of the suspect.
Means was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
State vehicle records showed the most recent buyer of the Jeep Cherokee was listed as Bendson, and it was found around 1:45 a.m. the next day in the median of Highway 100 in Brooklyn Center, where it was crashed and appeared to have had its interior lit on fire. The driver was gone.
The same day around noon, officers in St. Anthony responded to a suspicious person report in an alley behind a business on Pentagon Dr., where they reportedly found Bendson sitting inside a stolen vehicle. He was arrested shortly after.
A witness told officers on scene that Bendson used to work at the business and appeared to be under the influence of drugs before he was arrested.
The charge of criminal vehicular homicide is a felony and carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and/or a $20,000 fine.
Bendson has an anticipated release date of July 22, 2024.
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