A 31-year-old Minnesota man is accused of shooting his father nine times “execution-style” at the family’s rural hunting cabin, police said.
Kirk Edward Hazlett III, 31, of Cambridge, is charged with second-degree murder and felony kidnapping following the incident, according to the Pine County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities said in a release that tensions boiled over between Hazlett and his father, 62-year-old Kirk Edward Hazlett II, on Nov. 15 in Hinckley, Minnesota.
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Police were first alerted to the fatal encounter after receiving a 911 call reporting a shooting around 8:44 p.m. The caller, later identified as the victim’s brother, told police that the son had just shot his father.
Upon arriving at the rural two-bedroom cabin, owned by the elder Hazlett, they discovered the Hazlett II lying face down on the floor near a couch. Police said that there were several casings of ammunition on the ground next to him.
Court documents obtained by FOX 9 KMSP said that the 62-year-old was found with a “large amount of blood pooling on the ground near his head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A postmortem examination found that the victim was shot nine times – with one of them entering his head above his left ear and exiting at the right forehead.
During the subsequent investigation, the victim’s brother told authorities that he and another witness were finishing dinner when he received a notification on his phone from a trail camera that someone was approaching the home armed with a gun.
When he went to retrieve his gun from his bedroom, the witness heard three gunshots and saw his nephew holding a gun.
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The witness alleged that the 31-year-old directed his uncle and the other witness to sit on the couch. They said they feared for their lives, believing Hazlett may shoot them next.
The gunshot victim, the brother told deputies, was still alive at that point because he could be seen “breathing a little bit.” But moments later, Hazlett allegedly stood over his dad “and shot him in the head execution style,” court documents said, according to the local outlet.
The witness said that that Hazlett III appeared like he had “entered with a mission… He entered to kill him.”
During their investigation, both witnesses told police that Hazlett III and the victim, “weren’t getting along and hadn’t for a long time,” and that he was, “not in good relations with their family.”
They said he appeared “very coherent” during the incident and that he “didn’t appear under the influence” of any substances.
Hazlett III was arrested and booked in the Pine County Jail.
Hinckley is about an 80-mile drive north from Minneapolis.
