HENNEPIN COUNTY, Minn. — An Eden Prairie man is facing a decades-long sentence after he was found guilty of killing his wife while his children were present.
A Hennepin County jury found Ryan Charles Rooney guilty of 2nd-degree murder and 1st-degree murder while committing domestic abuse with a past pattern of domestic abuse on Thursday.
According to the charging documents, officers from the Eden Prairie Police Department responded to the Residence Inn Hotel on Nov. 2, 2021, to assist the staff with a welfare check.
The hotel's staff had attempted to contact the occupants of a room that were due to check out on Oct. 31, but had been unable to contact them due to a latched door.
On the morning of Nov. 2, the staff and maintenance team used tools to open the security latch and entered the room. They found a small child in a crib and a man in the fetal position on the bed, but were unable to awaken him, so they called the police.
Upon arrival, officers noted the clutter and strong smell of urine from the room. After the officers announced themselves multiple times a man, later identified as Rooney, walked down from the room's second level.
The officers noted Rooney had a gunshot wound under his chin and an exit wound near the top of his head, a small child was walking with him.
As the officers checked the hotel room, they found another child in a crib, the two children were determined to be one and two years old.
Rooney was detained and officers found two packages of suspected methamphetamine and a pistol holster on him.
The officers located a deceased woman on the top floor of the hotel, who had suffered a gunshot wound to her chest.
A search warrant was then executed on the room and the Hennepin County Crime Lab located a Ruger handgun and a bullet consistent with where the woman had been shot. The searchers also located a tray of meth on the toilet in the bathroom.
During the investigation, officers learned that Rooney had married the female victim in late August of that year. They also ascertained that the department had previously responded to the same hotel on Oct. 19 on a report of a man waving a gun around in the parking lot. Officers at the time found Rooney there and also found the 911 caller had used the female victim's cell phone to call the police.
In a statement to the police on Nov. 4, Rooney told police "I don't know why I shot [victim]."
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