Man charged with murder in shooting death of his wife at Eden Prairie hotel

A man has been charged with murder in the shooting death of his wife, who was found dead last week at an extended-stay hotel in Eden Prairie.

Ryan Charles Rooney, 34, is being held on charges of second-degree murder and child endangerment, according to a complaint. His home address was listed as the Residence Inn, 7780 Flying Cloud Dr., where the victim was found. Two children, ages 1 and 2, were in the suite at the time but unhurt.

The name of the victim, who had been married to Rooney for two months, was not released. Rooney was being held at the Hennepin County jail and was scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday.

Police arrived at the two-story hotel about 11 a.m. Tuesday after staff asked them to perform a welfare check. They found the woman dead of a gunshot wound and Rooney with an allegedly self-inflicted gunshot wound.

According to the complaint, Rooney told police: "I don't know why I shot [the victim]." He was taken to HCMC for treatment of his injuries.

The couple had stayed at the hotel for about 20 days and were due to leave on Oct. 31, the complaint said. Housekeeping staff had checked on the room three times but the door was locked with its security latch, and staffers at the front desk got no response from the room.

After hotel staff and maintenance people used tools to open the interior latch, they found a child in a crib and tried unsuccessfully to wake a man, later identified as Rooney, in a fetal position on a bed. The room was extremely cluttered and smelled strongly of urine.

When police arrived, according to the complaint, Rooney came downstairs from the room's second level accompanied by a second child. He had a gunshot wound under his chin and an exit wound on the top of his head.

Rooney said the gun was upstairs, where police found the dead woman with a gunshot wound to the chest. She apparently had been dead for about a day, according to the complaint.

Police found a handgun between the bed and the wall, with a round in the wall behind the victim and another lodged in the ceiling.

According to the complaint, Rooney was carrying two baggies of suspected methamphetamine and a pistol holster. Officers also found a tray of methamphetamine on the toilet in the bathroom, where it would have been accessible to the children.

The investigation determined that Rooney and the woman were married on Aug. 30. They also found that two weeks before the shooting, police had received a call from the victim's cellphone about a man waving a gun in the hotel parking lot. The person who called police did not provide a name.

Rooney has two previous convictions for domestic assault and a conviction for violating an order for protection, as well as felony convictions for making terroristic threats and violating a domestic abuse no-contact order.

Katy Read • 612-673-4583