St. Cloud Man Charged with Attempted Murder After Allegedly Shooting his Roommate

(KNSI) — The suspect accused of shooting his roommate and assaulting another has been formally charged.

According to the criminal complaint, officers were called to a home on the 800 block of 8th Avenue South around 4:20 Sunday morning, November 23rd, for a report of a shooting. Officers spoke with a 44-year-old man who had been shot in the shoulder. He told investigators his roommate, 31-year-old Austin Gerads, had tried to kill him. The man said he woke up when Gerads shot him in the shoulder, then accused him of killing his daughter. Gerads then pointed the gun at his head and shot him in the face, with the bullet grazing his cheek, before pistol whipping him in the back of the head. The man knocked the gun out of Gerads’s hand, and the two tussled over the weapon before the victim got a hold of it and threw it out of Gerads’s reach. A 55-year-old man who also lives there said he heard the shots and asked Gerads what happened before Gerads hit him over the head.

Officers arrived and said they found Gerads, who fled out the back door and refused to stop. He was eventually tased and taken into custody.

During a search, investigators say they found a gun, bullets, shell casings, a bloodied bedframe pole, a piece of a bullet that had gone through two walls into another room, and a bag of suspected methamphetamine.

In a statement to police, Gerads said what he did was “worth it” and claimed his daughter was trapped in the basement under a trap door. Officers say none of his family members were injured, and no one was being held captive.

Gerads is charged with attempted second-degree murder, second-degree assault and fleeing police.

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