Cayler Ellingson, 18, was struck and killed after a street dance in McHenry early Sunday morning. The driver accused of hitting Ellingson in an alley, Shannon Bradt, 41, is charged in Foster County with vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. Cayler Ellingson GoFundMe Jail records from Stutsman County, where Brandt was being held, show he posted $50,000 bond Tuesday and was released. His attorney did not immediately return a call for comment. Brandt told investigators he left the scene after hitting Ellingson, returned briefly, called 911 and then left again, according to a probable cause affidavit. The court document said Brandt told investigators he had been drinking before hitting Ellingson and thought the teenager was calling for people to hurt him after they argued and that he felt threatened. Ellingson was rushed to a hospital in Carrington, where he was pronounced dead. Investigators arrested Brandt at his home in Glenfield later Sunday. Officials said he consented to a chemical breath test that showed his blood-alcohol content was above 0.08 percent, the legal limit for driving. Capt. Bryan Niewind of the North Dakota Highway Patrol, who helped investigate the death, said Brandt’s political argument claim has not been substantiated because the investigation is still ongoing and more witnesses need to be interviewed. Specific details of the alleged argument were not released. Ellingson’s parents later told police they knew Bradt but didn’t believe their son did, the affidavit said. Ellingson’s mother described how she was on her way to pick up her son from McHenry when she got the call about 2:40 a.m. and asked her if she knew Brandt. Ellingson called again a short time later and said “that ‘he’ or ‘they’ were after him.” He could no longer be reached after that, the document said. According to an initial news release from the North Dakota State Patrol, a Ford Explorer struck a pedestrian who was “seriously injured” and later died. A GoFundMe for Ellingson had raised more than $27,000 as of Thursday morning. The page says Ellingson “went to heaven and will be missed by his mom, dad, brother, uncles, aunts, cousins, lots of family and friends.”
