UPDATE: Charges Filed Against Suspects in Fatal West Duluth Shooting
UPDATE: DULUTH, Minn. – Today, police arrested a third person in connection to the fatal West Duluth shooting.
Police announced Friday afternoon that they have arrested a 29-year-old female on charges of Aiding An Offender.
Formal charges are pending.
DULUTH, Minn. – Two male suspects arrested in connection to the fatal shooting of 33-year-old Timothy Nelson in West Duluth have been charged.
Christopher Floyd Boder, 31, and James Michael Peterson, 38, are both facing charges of Second-Degree Aiding and Abetting Murder.
Boder and Peterson were arrested on Tuesday and made their first court appearance Friday morning.
Authorities were called to the North 300 Block of 62nd Avenue West around 1:45 a.m. Sunday on reports of shots fired.
When police arrived on scene they found Nelson sitting in a gray truck with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Nelson was pronounced dead at a local area hospital.
According to the criminal complaint, a female witness told authorities that she had been dropped off on the 200 Block of North 62 Avenue West by Nelson to purchase methamphetamine from Boder.
The witness told police that Boder did not want to complete the transaction at his residence so they drove a short distance to a dead end.
While there, the witness says she saw Timothy Nelson drive by where they had parked their car.
Shortly after, the witness says Nelson “suddenly opened the driver’s door” of Boder’s vehicle and displayed what appeared to be a handgun.
According to the criminal complaint, the witness told authorities Nelson then demanded money and got into a physical altercation with Boder.
The witness told police she did not believe Nelson knew she was in the car during the altercation and when the fight stopped Nelson left on foot.
The complaint says when Boder got back into his car he drove a short distance and found Nelson in his truck where the two men got into a “heated verbal exchange.”
The witness told authorities she heard Boder tell Nelson that he “would deal with him later.”
After the verbal exchange, the witness told police that Boder drove back to his residence where he went inside and returned to the car along with Peterson.
According to the complaint, Peterson had a rifle with him that he held in his lap in the backseat of the vehicle.
At this time, the witness told authorities that Boder asked her to call Nelson and figure out where he was.
The witness called Nelson and put him on speaker phone as she confronted him about the robbery.
According to the complaint, Nelson acted surprised that the witness had been in the car and told her he was “bored so he thought he would try to rob some random drug users.”
The witness then told Nelson to go back to the spot where he dropped her off earlier and “they would take care of everything.”
In the complaint the witness tells authorities that she was going to stay for the confrontation to make sure everything went smoothly but she was told by Boder that he did not want her to “see what they were about to do.”
The witness says Boder asked her if she knew Nelson’s parent’s phone number so she could call them to tell them where to find Nelson’s body.
According to the complaint, the witness asked Boder to drop her off at the Proctor Minit Mart so she could get a different ride home. Surveillance footage at Minit Mart shows Boder’s vehicle driving up and dropping off the witness around 1:40 a.m.
The witness told authorities that after she was dropped off she called Nelson to let him know that Boder was very angry and it was a good idea to not be where she told him to be.
According to the complaint, at this time Nelson told the witness that he was going to stay where he was to talk it out with Boder and Peterson and that he saw lights pulling up and he would call the witness back.
The witness told police a couple of hours later she received a Facebook Messenger message from Peterson saying “he needed to see her face to face and that something bad had happened.
Peterson then called the witness, according to the complaint, saying he would pay her any amount of money to get him out of the state and that he did something “f***** up.”
The witness described Peterson’s demeanor as frantic and bawling and screaming on the phone.
According to the complaint, the witness then asked Peterson is Nelson was dead and he said “he still had a pulse when we walked away.”
At this time it is not clear who the shooter was in the incident.
Bail has been set at $750,000 for each suspect.
The next court appearance for Boder and Peterson is scheduled for October 22.
