One of three children returning from a fishing outing on their bikes was hit and killed by an SUV on a country road in Mille Lacs County after sunset and within a few hundred yards of her home, authorities said Wednesday.

The collision that killed 7-year-old Alyssa Grimm occurred Tuesday night on County Road 8 near County Road 5, west of Pease, Minn., the State Patrol said.

Alyssa was taken by emergency medical personnel to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, where she died, the patrol said.

Grimm was heading west and was hit by the westbound SUV just east of County Road 5, the patrol said in a statement.

Driver Ryan D. Schipper, 29, of Milaca, and his wife, Robin J. Schipper, 28, were not hurt in the incident.

Allysa was returning on a summer's evening from fishing at a gravel pit a mile away in Pease with sister Amanda, 11, and a boy, all on their bikes, said Heidi Schaefer, Alyssa and Amanda's mother.

"It wasn't totally dark yet" as the three were nearing the girls' home, Schaefer said.

Alyssa was in the middle, with Amanda leading the way and the boy behind when the SUV hit Alyssa's back wheel and sent the bike into the air, Schaefer said.

However, according to Mille Lacs County Sheriff Brent Lindgren, the driver offered a slightly different account of the moment before the collision. Ryan Schipper said Alyssa was in the eastbound lane heading west and "turned in front of him at the last second," Lindgren said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon.

The bike came down on Alyssa and also clipped Amanda, the mother added.

"I had just gotten home from work, and Amanda came home telling us [Alyssa] had gotten hit," Schaefer said.

Schaefer said she hurried down the road, saw Alyssa was unconscious "and we figured she was already gone."

Despite the lifesaving efforts of local law enforcement officers and state troopers, Alyssa was dead within hours.

Alyssa did not have on a helmet, but Schaefer said that emergency responders told her "it probably wouldn't have done any good."

Schafer said Alyssa would have been in first grade this fall at Milaca Elementary School.

"She liked riding horses and doing 4-H stuff," Schaefer said, as well as "swimming and running around" with her seven brothers and two sisters.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482