On a snowy Sunday morning in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on December 1, 2019, the life of eight-year-old Caucasian male Nelson Sidney Schladetzky was tragically cut short. That morning, Nelson and his 11-year-old brother, William, were playing in the front yard of their home on Oakland Avenue South when their father, 53-year-old David Schladetzky, arrived.
What should have been a routine Sunday pickup turned into a horrific act of violence as David shot both of his sons in the yard.
Responding to a call around 10 a.m., Minneapolis police officers arrived at a devastating scene. They found the two boys with gunshot wounds and, upon hearing more gunfire from inside the house, had to quickly move them to safety. William died in a police cruiser shortly after, while Nelson was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead at 10:39 a.m. The boys' mother, 39-year-old Kjersten Schladetzky, was found deceased inside the home from multiple gunshot wounds and a stab wound to the chest.
The incident resulted in a standoff with police that lasted for several hours. Law enforcement officials treated the situation as a potential hostage scenario, evacuating nearby homes as they attempted to make contact with David Schladetzky. Later that afternoon, around 2:30 p.m., a police robot discovered David's body inside the home; he had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner later confirmed the deaths were the result of a triple murder-suicide. Investigators found a suicide note at the scene, though its contents were not made public. It was also reported that David Schladetzky had a permit to purchase a firearm. The couple had finalized their divorce in June of that year and had agreed to joint custody of their two sons.
