Minneapolis man shot and killed his drug client, not an intruder, charges say

A north Minneapolis man shot and killed a drug customer who showed up at his home wearing a mask and holding a hatchet, according to charges.

Travis P.W. Leonard, 23, was charged Monday in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in connection with the death last week of Dylan F. Lattery, 23, of Owatonna, Minn.

Leonard remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail before a court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

According to the criminal complaint:

Leonard called 911 shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday to report a shooting at his home in the 1100 block of N. Irving Avenue. He told police he shot a man who broke into his house.

Officers found Lattery facedown and dead near a back door. He was dressed in a black hoodie, mask and gloves. A hatchet was in his hand.

Police searched the home and found a gun in a bedroom closet and $13,000 on top of a safe. An adjacent room had a suitcase filled with marijuana in vacuum-sealed bags.

Leonard told police the intruder had a hatchet and stood in the doorway of the bedroom, where Leonard, his wife and their baby were located. He said he fought the man, and both fell downstairs.

At one point, Leonard continued, he called for his wife to get a gun.

She retrieved the gun, came downstairs and saw Leonard "pinning [Lattery] down on the ground and beating him [and] clearly had the upper hand," the complaint read.

Leonard then asked his wife to shoot Lattery, but she declined, gave her husband the gun and went upstairs.

Leonard shot the man in the back and the head and then "planted the hatchet back in [Lattery's] hand to make it look like he had still been a threat," the charges said.

Leonard soon admitted to knowing Lattery and that he had sold marijuana to him on previous occasions.

Both Leonard and his wife told investigators that Lattery asked for his life to be ended following the initial gunshot.

Lattery couldn't walk or feel his legs and pleaded, "Just end me. Just end me now," according to Leonard, who admitted shooting Lattery in the back of the head while the man was facedown.