Prosecutors won't charge Minnetonka man in storage facility shooting death

A 65-year-old man who fatally shot another man in the head and neck inside a Minnetonka ministorage facility was acting in self-defense and won't be charged, a spokesman for the Hennepin County attorney's office said Tuesday.

Thomas E. Luetzow, 58, of Minnetonka, was shot late on the morning of June 23 at the Public Mini Storage in the 2800 block of Hedberg Drive during what police described as a dispute between the two men. Luetzow was dead at the scene.

The gunman was arrested that same day without incident in neighboring St. Louis Park, then hospitalized for an unrelated medical need and booked into jail on June 26 and released as police put together their case.

The Minnetonka man's booking photo showed fresh wounds to his right eye and elsewhere on his head.

Chuck Laszewski, spokesman for the county attorney's office, said prosecutors are declining to file charges because the gunman acted in self-defense.

Laszewski declined to address the circumstances of the shooting that led to the decision not to file charges in the case, which he said is now closed.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482