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Crime, Law and Justice
Tim Nelson
St. Paul

Roseville teen charged in killing that triggered Twin Cities alert

Murder charge for boy, 17, suspected of attacking his family, killing his grandmother

Police restrain suspect aside the road
St. Paul police officers arrest a homicide suspect Tuesday near the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Prosecutors have charged a 17-year-old with the murder of his grandmother.
Photo from Anne Kinner

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A Roseville teenager has been charged with murder and assault for an attack on Tuesday that killed his 88-year-old grandmother and inadvertently sparked widespread alarm across a swath of the Twin Cities metro area.

The Ramsey County Attorney's Office on Thursday filed a juvenile court petition against the 17-year-old, who was arrested after fleeing the home he shared with seven other family members, including his grandmother.

According to the filing, family members were alerted to the assault when they heard a bell that the grandmother rang when she needed help. When they responded, they found her grandson attacking her, only to have him turn on them with a baseball bat.

Police found the dying grandmother suffering from numerous knife and blunt force injuries and issued a shelter-in-place alert that flashed across the entire county as they searched for the suspect. (Ramsey County emergency officials said later it was sent to a broader area than intended.)

His mother and sister both suffered disfiguring head injuries in the attack. The teen later told police he felt he was mentally ill and didn't know who he was.

The charges include second-degree murder and first-degree assault. Prosecutors are seeking to charge him as an adult. MPR News typically does not name suspects until they are charged as adults with a crime.

Watch: Erika Scheider, Roseville’s police chief, briefs reporters Tuesday about the effort to find a homicide suspect that triggered phone alerts across the metro area: