Uber passenger in Bloomington hit-and-run dies months after crash; nationwide warrant for suspect

A man severely injured in a two-vehicle hit-and-run crash last December in Bloomington has died nearly nine months later, and the driver remains a fugitive, police said.

Kelvin Conteh, of Bloomington, died Sunday from injuries inflicted in a collision at about 10:30 p.m. Dec. 13 at the intersection of E. 94th Street and S. 12th Avenue, Police Chief Booker Hodges said in a video statement released Thursday.

Conteh, 50, suffered a broken neck while he was a passenger in an Uber vehicle, according to a court document filed soon after the crash.

Hodges said that the earlier charge of criminal vehicular operation against Eivi Hernan Bueno Almontes, 20, of Bloomington, will be stiffened to criminal vehicular homicide. The chief said a nationwide warrant has been issued for the arrest of Bueno Almontes.

“So if you know where he’s at, please let us know. And to Mr. [Bueno] Almontes, I suggest you turn yourself in,” Hodges said in the video.

According to court records, officers arrived to find Conteh, who was getting a ride to the Walmart in Bloomington, unconscious in the back seat of the Uber driver’s car with life-threatening injuries.

The Uber driver was heading north on 12th and entered the intersection at 94th with the right of way. The rideshare vehicle was hit on the rear passenger side by an Infiniti whose driver, court records say, blew a stop sign and was speeding without headlights on.

Part of the Infiniti’s bumper and headlight assembly were found at the scene. Police recovered the vehicle about three weeks later at an auto shop in New Hope where Bueno Almontes worked.

At first, Bueno Almontes told a fellow employee he hit a deer, then “joked that he committed a hit-and-run,” the criminal complaint read.

Investigators went to Bueno Almontes’ apartment and saw it was abandoned. He stopped showing up for work nine days after the crash. The investigators collected location data from a social media app in Bueno Almontes’ name that placed its user near Mexico City.

Court records in Minnesota show that in a span of barely more than a year starting in February 2022, Bueno Almontes was convicted five times for speeding and once for driving on a suspended license. His license was valid at the time of the crash, according to the state Department of Public Safety.