A rural teen's death was a talking point in national politics for 10 days last fall, but then the facts told a non-political story

Buck’s n Doe’s Bar, site of the killing.
(Photo by Lewis Ableidinger, The New York Times)

In the wee hours of a September night in 2022, Shannon Brandt and 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson, both of McHenry, N.D., population 64, were alone in a bar's parking lot, drunk and arguing. Brandt decided to leave the conflict, got into his Ford Explorer, and ran over Ellingson, who later died, report Charles Homans and Ken Bensinger of The New York Times. Brandt's motivation for killing Ellingson was not immediately clear beyond "a state highway patrol officer's report, which suggested Brandt killed Ellingson because he believed he was a 'Republican extremist.'" Like many initial investigation reports, this idea changed within a few days.

Despite sparse facts from a few initial reports, right-wing supporters looking at mid-term elections took the story and began a narrative of a deranged, white Democrat who ran over and killed a teenager because he was Republican. "Former President Donald J. Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia were among a chorus of Republican politicians — including several members of Congress and the attorney general of North Dakota — who rushed to condemn Brandt. . . . The episode quickly became an example of another media phenomenon: the distortion of complex, painful events to fit an opportune political narrative."

The facts supporting Brandt as politically active or a Democrat do not seem to exist, but the narrative persisted. "Although evidence in the case suggests the two men argued about politics that night, law-enforcement officials concluded quickly that the killing was not politically motivated," Homans and Bensinger write. "Gateway Pundit, a right-wing site that regularly seeds stories in the conservative media, wrote its own version under the headline 'Crazed North Dakota man runs over and kills teen for "extremist" Republican views'."

For 10 days, "The case was discussed on at least seven Fox News shows. The coverage continued well after law-enforcement officials had said the killing was not politically motivated, a point that was only occasionally mentioned on air," the Times reports. "Eleven days after Ellingson's death, the county prosecutor, Kara Brinster, dropped the initial charge of vehicular homicide. . . for a new one: intentional homicide, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison. . . . Then, as quickly as it swelled, the media frenzy receded. . . . Fox News's hosts did not mention the case on-air again after Sept. 30."

It seemed the midterms talking point had lost its steam. "Earlier this month, after Brinster dismissed the intentional homicide charge, the decision merited little more attention than a front-page story in The Foster County Independent and an article by The Associated Press," the Times reports. "As Brandt agreed to plead guilty, Jack Posobiec, a right-wing podcaster, took up the story again. . . . He singled out the prosecutor, claiming she had gone soft on Brandt. . . . . He posted her photograph and phone number online and told listeners to call her to complain. Posobiec told his listeners, "Maybe Kara Brinster should be prosecuted. Maybe we should look into her."