2 Charged With Attempted Murder In Shooting Of MPD Forensic Scientist

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Two people have been charged with attempted murder in connection with the shooting of a 33-year-old forensic scientist with the Minneapolis Police Department.

According to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, 41-year-old Timothy Amacher and 24-year-old Colleen Larson, both of St. Paul, face one felony count of attempted murder in the April 20 incident. Amacher faces an additional felony count of aiding an offender after the fact.

Criminal Complaint Details

Officers were dispatched at 7:33 p.m. to a supervised parenting center in Minneapolis near Malcolm and University avenues on the report of a shooting. There, officers found the 33-year-old female victim suffering from a gunshot wound to the right side of her neck and right forearm.

The victim was rushed to Hennepin Healthcare where she remains hospitalized, but is expected to survive. She suffered numerous internal injuries due to the gunshot wound to her neck and a "through and through" gunshot wound to her arm.

The victim was shot while she was picking up her 5-year-old child, which she shares with Amacher. Amacher was inside the parenting center when the victim was shot. A court order restricts Amacher's contact with the child to be supervised, with contact between him and the victim prohibited.

Employees at the parenting center who knew the victim and Amacher's family history told police that the shooter might be Amacher's girlfriend, Larson.

Police say surveillance footage from the parking lot shows a person, later identified as Larson, arriving in a black 2022 Dodge Ram without a license plate. She then exited the vehicle and hid behind a fence until the victim got out of her vehicle. Larson then ran up behind the victim holding a firearm. The video showed Larson raising the gun up toward the victim, but the shooting happened just outside camera view.

Amacher was not arrested at the scene, but was interviewed. According to the criminal complaint, he spent a "large portion of the interview describing how he is a victim of family court, MPD and Victim's behavior."

Police later learned that the Dodge Ram belonged to Amacher, who purchased it in January. Amacher did not mention that he owned a Dodge Ram when talking about his vehicles in the initial interview, police said.

In a search warrant executed at Amacher's St. Paul residence, authorities recovered multiple firearms and .380 discharged cartridge cases that were fired from the same gun used in the April 20 shooting. A .380 pistol was not found.

The criminal complaint says GPS data shows that Amacher and Larson switched vehicles three hours before the shooting, at Amacher's work in White Bear Lake. Amacher then drove to the parenting center, and Larson stopped at the St. Paul residence before traveling on to the parenting center.

Investigators discovered that Amacher and the victim's relationship involved domestic violence, extreme harassment and stalking behavior by Amacher over the past few years. The child also told a social worker at one point that Amacher instructed them to lie about being abused.

Investigators also learned that Amacher allegedly propositioned a friend to kill the victim for $50,000, which was corroborated by multiple witnesses and phone records.

Both are in custody with high bail requested due to their posing a "significant risk" to the victim and public, court documents show.

If convicted, both could face up to life in prison on the attempted murder charge.