Young Brit hit by car fleeing St. Louis gunfight, dragged two blocks

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A 22-year-old woman was fighting for her life after being accidentally caught in a gun battle in St. Louis and then dragged under a car for two blocks.

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Ellie Bentley was in intensive care for two weeks after the attack, while a 25-year-old man was also rushed to a hospital with gunshot wounds.

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The young British woman, who moved to the U.S. last year, was getting out of her car near her home in Missouri when the incident broke out, the U.S. Sun reported.

She was rushed to a hospital in the early hours of Feb. 25, suffering from several fractured limbs. She was released from the ICU earlier this week.

Bentley, from Bingham, England, east of Nottingham, recently graduated from the University of York after studying mathematics and physics. She moved to the U.S. with her then-boyfriend, Indiana Vassilev, a former Aston Villa soccer player who had transferred to St. Louis FC of Major League Soccer.

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She faces “a long road to recovery,” her attorney Ben Tobin told the U.S. Sun, before explaining what allegedly happened on the morning of Feb. 25.

“She had just gotten out of a car when the shooting started,” he said. “She ducked down behind another vehicle until the shooting stopped, but then the person whose car she was hiding behind floored it, hit her, ran her over and dragged her for a couple of blocks.”

Bentley didn’t know either party involved in the shooting, her lawyer added, saying she was an “unlucky bystander.”

The person who hit her with his car allegedly “knew she was there” when he ran her over, the lawyer said.

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St. Louis police said a group of people reportedly tried to get into the wrong car thinking it belonged to one of the people in their party.

Cops said the driver, a 35-year-old man, then allegedly shot at the group, leaving a 25-year-old man with gunshot wounds.

Further investigation revealed that Bentley was injured by a separate car, which fled the scene after the shooting started and was being driven by another 25-year-old man, police said.

Police said they had arrested the driver of the car who struck the woman, but that the shooting suspect was still at large.

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Bentley regained consciousness on Saturday, her lawyer said.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help with medical expenses.

Through her attorney, Bentley told the U.S. Sun: “Like most 22-year-olds, I enjoyed dance, going to the gym and yoga and devoted two to three hours a day to physical fitness.

“Now I can’t move my legs or my right arm.”

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