MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Richfield man has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a 20-year-old man who was shot last Saturday.
At 4:40 p.m., police responded to reports of shots fired on the 6900 block of 16th Avenue South. Upon arrival, officers found a 20-year-old man dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds.
He was later identified as Fernando Leon-Celis. He had been shot nine times, and had been pistol-whipped as well.
According to the criminal complaint, Fred Bella-Sanchez was walking up to the residence that afternoon and saw Leon-Celis walk inside. The charges state he then went to the door and found it locked. Moments later, he heard a scuffle and a number of gunshots.
Bella-Sanchez’s brother then came to the door and told him, “Don’t come in. You don’t want to see this. Call the police.”
The brother said that Leon-Celis bullied his brother — Jonathan Tadeo Bella-Sanchez — all of the time.
Jonathan Bella-Sanchez had a gun in his front pocket. He said that Leon-Celis tried to grab the gun from his pocket in the scuffle.
A medical examiner determined that Leon-Celis had been shot once through the left eye, twice in the upper chest and torso, twice in the lower left leg, once to the left of his buttocks, once to his right front hip, once to his left rear hip and once to the back. He had also been pistol-whipped on the face.
The criminal complaint says that officers noted no injuries to Jonathan Bella-Sanchez’s person when they took him into custody.
He is now charged with second-degree murder.
