MINNESOTA, USA — A woman is dead after police say she was struck by a hit-and-run driver while walking her dog in Blaine Monday.
The Anoka County Sheriff's Office says Blaine police squads were dispatched to 109th Ave. NE and Flanders Court NE just after 12:30 p.m. on reports of a pedestrian hit by a vehicle.
When officers arrived on scene they found 56-year-old Bridget O'Keefe Dunn had been struck while walking her dog, and the driver responsible had fled the scene. First responders performed life-saving measures on O'Keefe Dunn before she was airlifted to a local hospital. Unfortunately her injuries proved fatal.
The vehicle investigators have linked to the fatal hit-and-run was located a short time later, and an Anoka County spokesperson says a 31-year-old Blaine man is currently in custody. At this point he has not been charged.
Friends described Bridget Dunn as a beloved mother of three and yoga instructor at Body Sense Pilates & Wellness Studio in Blaine.
Kelly Tollefson, a friend who works with Dunn's husband, trained with Dunn at her studio on a weekly basis and called her "just an amazing person."
"I was in shock. Didn't want it to be real. Still don't want it to be real," Tollefson said. "I've never met a nicer person. She was so kind. And she was such a bright light. She would drop anything for anyone."
Julie Jeppson, a city council member in Blaine, also knew Dunn and said "I can't even tell you the shock that I experienced as well as anyone who knew her, knowing of her passing."
"She was an absolute beautiful soul," Jeppson said. "She had a remarkable way of, when you were having a conversation with her, she made you feel like the most important person in the room. She cared so much about you as a human, you as a person... she was just the real deal."
In her capacity as a city council member, Jeppson also said that safety on that stretch of 109th Avenue in Blaine has been a major concern, even before the incident that killed Dunn. That particular stretch of 109th Avenue, which is owned and operated by Anoka County, sees about 8,000 cars per day as of 2018 -- and that number is likely growing with an explosion of development and growth in the area.
Jeppson pleaded with Anoka County to take action to improve safety along that stretch of 109th.
"It's just really frustrating," Jeppson said, "because there's only so much the city can do, to change county road flow."
Joe MacPherson, the Anoka County Engineer, said the county is taking a hard look at safety improvements in that area.
"109th is one of those that we're looking at, that has seen more residential and commercial pressure in the last several years," MacPherson said. "And so we are analyzing different options to make that roadway more capable."
MacPherson said that could include adding sidewalks or bike lanes, or even widening the road beyond its current two-lane structure. The road, he said, is currently classified as a "rural" one, but due to the growth in traffic, it may need to be transformed into an "urban" roadway. If such an upgrade were to occur, crews could add separated sidewalks, a curb and gutter, and storm sewer collection facilities, among other possible features.
"Once we develop that plan and a vision, that's when we start looking for those funding sources, whether that's city dollars, county dollars, [Or] federal dollars, state dollars, which can be bond dollars, or a competitive selection type process," MacPherson said. "There's a number of different funding mechanisms that we can look at to start building a project."
In Monday's incident that claimed Bridget Dunn's life, investigators have not said why or how the suspect struck her, although they have said they believe he was traveling westbound and left the scene without stopping.
"I just... couldn't understand why someone would do that," Kelly Tollefson said. "But, they have their own demons."
Authorities also say that the dog O'Keefe Dunn was walking was not injured in the incident.