LINO LAKES, Minn. — A man from northeastern Minnesota is charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of a Lino Lakes resident.
Prosecutors say 43-year-old Nicholas Walter Zielinski of Hermantown left DNA on a gun that was recovered by Lino Lakes Police inside a home on the 6900 block of West Shadow Lake Drive.
A criminal complaint details how squads were dispatched to the home just after 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 27 when the homeowner called them and said he had found his son dead in the basement.
The victim's father told officers he returned home from grocery shopping and noticed an unfamiliar black SUV in the driveway. When the man entered the home he found two strangers, a man later identified as Zielinski and a woman, inside his kitchen.
The man says he followed the two outside as they left his home, asking them who they are and what they were doing. The criminal complaint alleges that Zielinski said something like "Your son stole on me," and "I'll take you out too," then drove away. The homeowner then went downstairs and found his son, 22-year-old Karl Mitchell Henderson, face down in a pool of blood. First responders confirmed that Henderson had been shot in the abdomen, and declared him dead on the scene.
Investigators found a 9mm handgun on the scene that did not belong to the victim. DNA testing allowed them to develop a profile that matched Nicholas Walter Zielinski, the defendant, according to the complaint.
Henderson's father later identified Zielinski from a photo lineup as the man he confronted inside his home.
Other officers canvased the neighborhood and retrieved Ring doorbell videos that showed a black GMC SUV leaving the neighborhood. They soon learned that a woman who lived at the address registered to Zielinski is the owner of a black GMC Terrain SUV.
At this point prosecutors have not shared a motive for the fatal shooting. If found guilty, Nicholas Walter Zielinski faces a possible 40-year prison sentence.
