The man found fatally shot Thursday morning in his Minneapolis neighborhood apartment was identified Friday by the Hennepin County medical examiner's office as Michael Whitelaw, 50.
Police are still investigating Whitelaw's death and searching for his killer. He was found at 9:30 a.m. in a ground-floor unit at 1618 Glenwood Avenue N., in the Harrison neighborhood, by officers conducting a welfare check after his landlord grew concerned, police said.
Several neighbors reported hearing gunshots about 2:30 a.m. and the front door of Whitelaw's apartment was peppered with seven gunshots, according to police scanner traffic.
One neighbor, who declined to give her name for fear of retaliation, said she has noticed a rise in drug dealing in and around the property in recent weeks, prompting her to complain to the building's management that people were propping the front door open and going in and out at all times of the night.
She said that the victim, whom she knew simply as "Michael," had been quiet and reserved.
The woman said the sound of gunshots roused her from bed early Thursday. Glancing out of her window, she saw a man rifling through the back seat of a vehicle before driving away.
The homicide, the city's 31st of the year, occurred along a stretch of Glenwood full of apartments and businesses, including two cafes, a nail salon, church and the Venture North bike and coffee shop.
The Harrison neighborhood west of downtown is relatively free of violent crime. The previous homicide there took place in February 2013. Robert A. Young, 35, was found by police stabbed in his home in the 2000 block of Glenwood Avenue. An arrest was made in the case, but no formal charges were filed.
