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Crime, Law and Justice
Dan Gunderson

Court documents offer new details about Cloquet motel shooting

A view of a Super 8 motel with police vehicles outside.
Cloquet-area law enforcement and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension secure a crime scene on Jan. 9, the day after a shooting that left three people dead at a motel in Cloquet.
Erica Dischino for MPR News

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Search warrant documents have revealed new details about a shooting earlier this month at a motel in Cloquet that left three people dead.

The documents do not offer insights into a possible motive for the shooting.

The warrants show that police sought approval to examine a cell phone believed to belong to the suspect in the shooting, along with a camera inside a vehicle the man was thought to be driving.

Investigators believe the suspect, 32-year-old Nicholas Elliot Lenius of Ramsey, communicated with a person identified as his supervisor during the incident.

Investigators found that Lenius sent a message to that person, saying, “[expletive] is going on.”

The supervisor told investigators he then called and spoke with Lenius, who was seen on surveillance video talking on his phone during the incident. It’s not clear from the documents in what role the person supervised Lenius, or what they talked about.

Police were called to the Super 8 motel in Cloquet just after 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 8.

A motel employee, 22-year-old Shellby Marie Trettel of Cloquet, was found with a gunshot wound to the head inside the building.

A second victim, 35-year-old Patrick Jeffery Roers of Deer River, was found in a vehicle in the parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds.

Lenius was found outside with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound and a weapon near his body.

A check of Minnesota court records for Lenius shows a 2014 conviction for drunken driving, and two other traffic-related misdemeanor convictions.

It’s unclear if the suspect and the victims knew each other. Cloquet Police Chief Derek Randall said previously that investigators believe both men were guests at the motel.

Funeral services for Trettel and Roers were held earlier this week.