FILE – In this Feb. 5, 2019, file photo, law enforcement personnel investigate a scene where a school bus driver was shot along Interstate 35W and 94 near downtown Minneapolis. Kenneth Lilly who shot and wounded school bus driver Thomas Benson on a Minneapolis freeway during a snowstorm has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Lilly was convicted for the February attack that left Benson deaf in one ear and unable to continue working as a bus driver due to nerve damage in his hand. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP, File)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man who shot and wounded a school bus driver on a Minneapolis freeway during a snowstorm has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
Thirty-two-year-old Kenneth Lilly, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty in August to first-degree assault for the February attack that left Thomas Benson deaf in one ear and unable to continue working as a bus driver due to nerve damage in his hand. Lilly was sentenced Friday to 86 months.
Authorities say Benson was trying to merge onto the highway when his bus scraped Lilly’s car, although Benson was unaware. During a traffic jam, Lilly walked in front of the bus and fired five shots into the windshield, wounding Benson’s arm and grazing his head. A girl on the bus was not hurt.
Defense attorneys asked for three years, citing Lilly’s “documented history of cognitive limitations.”
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