CRYSTAL, Minn. — A 29-year-old man has been charged Tuesday in a shooting inside a home in Crystal on Halloween night.
Angel Benito Villalva has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office says 26-year-old Maricio Manuel Mata-Thelen of St. Paul died of a gunshot wound to the torso, and classified his manner of death as homicide.
Crystal police said Villalva turned himself in on Sunday afternoon in connection with the fatal shooting.
According to police, Mata-Thelen was shot around 9 p.m. Saturday inside the home on the 5500 block of Yates Avenue North.
When officers arrived, they found the victim inside the home, suffering from a gunshot wound on the base of his neck.
Police and paramedics attempted lifesaving measures, but Mata-Thelen died at the scene from his injuries, according to a Crystal Police Department news release.
Everyone in the home at the time of the shooting was taken to the Crystal Police Department for questioning.
Villalva told police that he was trying to be "cool with the firearm and that one of the other men told him the gun looked jammed," the complaint reads.
Villalva claimed he shot the weapon accidentally after banging the gun on the ground and on a wall, prosecutors said.
Officers did not find evidence in the area of the shooting to support a bullet ricochet, and believe that the trajectory of the bullet in the victim's body suggests that someone pointed the gun directly at the victim and fired, the complaint states.
Anyone with information on the incident is urged call the Crystal Police tip line at 763-531-1020, as the investigation is ongoing.
