BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — A man is now charged with murder in the fatal shooting of his "off-again, on-again" girlfriend inside her Brooklyn Center home last Sunday.
In a criminal complaint, prosecutors lay out the charges against 36-year-old Michael Isaac Klinger, which include second-degree murder, drug possession and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
According to the complaint, Brooklyn Center police were dispatched around 1 p.m. on July 31 to a residence on the 5400 block of 68th Avenue North on reports of a shooting. When they entered the home, officers found the body of a woman laying face down on a couch, with two gunshot wounds in the chest near her heart. The victim also had a third gunshot wound on her thumb that police said would be consistent with putting her hand out in self defense.
Investigators spoke with two overnight guests who were inside the home at the time of the shooting, who heard the victim arguing with her some-time boyfriend, Michael Klinger. One of them told police he had known Klinger for many years, and had recently seen him in possession of a 9mm handgun.
The male witness told investigators that while the two were arguing he heard a gunshot come from the room. He and his girlfriend, the second witness, opened a window and fled the residence in fear for their lives.
While fleeing, the second witness told police her boyfriend jumped a large fence that she was unable to get over, so she ran for her vehicle parked in the driveway of the home and encountered the defendant. The criminal complaint says Klinger stated "you aren't going to tell the truth," and then fled the scene.
The complaint states a neighbor was able to record the defendant's license plate, which investigators traced to a vehicle Klinger had rented. The company traced it to a location in St. Louis Park, and while police were conducting surveillance, Klinger approached the vehicle. He was taken into custody, along with a backpack holding four handguns, three of which were listed as stolen. Also in the backpack were 445 grams of methamphetamine and more than $5,300 in cash.
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