Minneapolis man arrested in father's killing

A domestic assault Thursday night in a south Minneapolis residence ended with a man dead and his son in jail.

The son was arrested Friday for allegedly killing his father with a hammer and knife.

Anthony R. Jolson, 33, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with one count of intentional second-degree murder in the death in his family's home in the 4700 block of Elliott Avenue. Authorities did not release the victim's name, but a family member identified him as Donald Lee Jolson, 58.

According to the charges:

Police arrived at the home about 9 p.m. Anthony Jolson answered the door but refused to cooperate with police. His brother told police that their father had been attacked in the head with a hammer.

Police forced their way into the house and found the victim on the living room couch with a large amount of blood and a swollen and cut face.

The brother told police all three men lived at the home and that he had left earlier in the day to go ice skating, leaving Anthony Jolson and their father. When he returned, the brother said, he found their father unresponsive.

"It's my nightmare," Anthony Jolson allegedly told his brother. "I did something really bad."

Anthony Jolson told his brother that "the devil made me do it" and that he "sneak" attacked their father with a hammer and also stabbed him, the charges said.

The brother was inside the home for 15 minutes after the attack but fled out of fear.

The brother told police Anthony Jolson had recently been acting strangely and had talked about the devil and COVID and called him and their father the "devil."

Police found a hammer and knife in the home with suspected blood on the items. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office determined that Donald Jolson suffered stab wounds to his neck and upper chest, as well as fractures to the front and top of his head.

Court records show that Anthony Jolson was convicted of misdemeanor crimes between 2007 and 2019 for parking violations and failure to display current license plates. He was also convicted in one theft.

The death is the city's second homicide of the year.