Rochester Man Arrested In Fatal Shooting At Mobile Home Park
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Police have arrested a 19-year-old man following a deadly shooting at a mobile home park in Rochester Tuesday.
Twenty-two-year-old Trumane Gillmore of Rochester was killed while playing basketball on Monday. Two other men -- ages 20 and 18 -- suffered minor injuries.
A memorial of balloons and candles mark the spot where Gillmore took his last breathe.
"At first we heard two shots, we thought they were firecrackers," neighbor Lyle Doerr said.
Doerr and his husband, David, say the sound of gunshots forced them into action.
"We noticed some feet laying on the ground so he jumped the fence, I jumped the fence, we noticed a young male lying on the ground," Doerr said.
The gunman opened fire in broad daylight while a group of people, including children, were playing basketball.
They tried to help, but Gillmore had died. Two other men were hurt.
"This shooting incident was direct retaliation for a robbery that had occurred earlier, late morning yesterday," Cpt. John Sherwin said.
Investigators say they learned of a robbery in the 300 block of 31st Street Northeast. The victim told a neighbor why he was running through yards.
"He indicated he'd been robbed and people were chasing him. That … got us involved," Sherwin said.
The robbery victim gave police some information about who robbed him. A few hours later, someone fired 15 rounds into a group of people on the other side of town.
"We quickly realized that the victims in the shooting were actually the suspects in the earlier robbery and that quickly got us on the trail of Mr. Ocegueda, who is the robbery victim … [and] the shooter," Sherwin said.
Officers traced 19-year-old Courtney Ocegueda to Faribault, where they used tear gas to draw him out of a house.
Investigators say Ocegueda and the others involved in the robbery and shooting are not strangers to police.
Police are still investigating the robbery.