School bus driver admits to killing pedestrian in Brooklyn Park, fleeing scene

A 35-year-old man has pleaded guilty to running over and killing a woman in Brooklyn Park while he was driving a school bus with children aboard.

Jason R. Rynders, 35, of Maple Grove, pleaded guilty last week in Hennepin County District Court to hit-and-run criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash on March 16, 2020, that killed Devon Lizbeth Doherty, 45, of Brooklyn Park.

The County Attorney's Office said it will seek a four-year term when Rynders is sentenced on Jan. 24.

Rynders' bus struck the woman about 6:45 a.m. at the intersection of Humboldt Avenue and Meadowwood Drive as he was heading to Friendship Academy, a Minneapolis charter elementary school. Doherty died at the scene. No children aboard were hurt.

Police investigators spoke with Rynders, "who admitted to hearing a noise and exiting his bus but said he did not think he hit anyone," the criminal complaint read.

Preliminary investigation "indicates that [Doherty] was hit by the front of the school bus and then again by the front axle, the rear tires or possibly both," the complaint read.

Rynders pulled over and ran back toward the spot of the collision, according to the charging document. Soon after, a motorist's voice can be heard on a residential surveillance video repeatedly yelling in vain at Rynders to call 911.