MINNEAPOLIS _ A St. Paul man is charged with attempted murder and assault for allegedly shooting a Minneapolis school bus driver in an apparent road rage incident amid a snowstorm on a busy interstate.
Kenneth W. Lilly, 31, of St. Paul, has been in jail since Tuesday in connection with the gunfire that wounded the 78-year-old driver along Interstate 35W near Chicago Avenue S. near downtown. A Minneapolis School District elementary student was seated in the back of the bus and was unharmed.
Lilly is charged with attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, both felonies. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday afternoon.
The bus driver, whose identity has yet to be released, was shot while behind the wheel sometime after 2 p.m. by Lilly, who got out of his car ahead of the bus.
The driver was "alert and conscious" while being taken by emergency medical personnel from the scene ahead of surgery at HCMC for noncritical injuries, said police spokesman John Elder.
Elder called the incident "mind-numbing" and said it "raises immense concern on so many levels."
Elder said the incident unfolded when several 911 callers reported Lilly being outside his car and pointing a handgun at the bus, and that shots were being fired.
"An altercation or dispute of some sort happened resulting in gunfire," Elder said early on in the investigation.
Elder said State Patrol officers arrived within a minute and arrested Lilly. A gun, believed to be a semi-automatic weapon, was taken from him.
Lilly does not appear to have a criminal record in Minnesota beyond minor traffic violations. His mother said he works as a security guard.
Reports to the State Patrol of civilians drawing weapons during traffic incidents in Minnesota have been on the rise in recent years.
The patrol reports there were 119 such incidents in 2015, 153 in 2016, 170 in 2017 and 179 in 2018.
