DULUTH — An 88-year-old driver who allegedly struck and critically injured an off-duty firefighter earlier this year has been found incompetent to stand trial. Ronald Gene Myrdahl suffers from a “major neurocognitive impairment,” Chief Judge Leslie Beiers wrote in an order indefinitely suspending criminal proceedings last week. Authorities said Myrdahl, of Duluth, failed to stop after hitting Raymond Skoglund, who was jogging along Grand Avenue, on the evening of Jan.
25. He reportedly did not have his headlights on and continued in his heavily damaged minivan to a grocery store. Skoglund, 24, was "barely breathing" when he was rushed to a hospital, and his injuries included two broken legs, a fractured rib and cervical vertebrae, broken nose and jaw, and multiple minor brain bleeds.
Myrdahl is charged with a felony count of criminal vehicular operation. Beiers ordered a mental health screening at his early March arraignment based on concerns raised by an emergency guardian from St. Louis County Public Health and Human Services.
ADVERTISEMENT A guardianship application filed by St. Luke's in early February indicates a doctor diagnosed Myrdahl with "profound dementia" after he was charged and released from jail. The petition further states that "all reversible causes have been treated and (his) condition will continue to progress.
" Myrdahl had previously been brought to the hospital during a brief stay at the St. Louis County Jail, as he was dealing with breathing-relate.