Lucifer Nguyen was captured late Monday night after a manhunt that lasted more than three days, the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.
Nguyen was arrested in Blaine about 11:30 p.m. and is being held in the Dakota County jail, police said.
Nguyen, 44, was charged Monday afternoon with murder, court records show. The charges came in the wake of a violent crime spree in the Mendota Heights area over the weekend, while police continued their search for the suspect.
Police say Nguyen killed Beverly Cory in Mendota Heights on Saturday, then took her car to the Washington County fairgrounds in Lake Elmo. The car was discovered on Saturday.
Cory, 48, was shot inside an office building on a commercial plaza near Hwy. 110 and Interstate 35E.
The Dakota County attorney’s office charged Nguyen on Monday afternoon with second-degree murder with intent, first-degree burglary, two counts of first-degree aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
Details of the crime spree are beginning to emerge. The Star Tribune reports that Mendota Heights police were called to a local residence about 9 a.m. The homeowner told police that a male matching Nguyen’s description came to her front door, asked her if it was the “Miller” residence and left when he was told it wasn’t.
The man drove away. But shortly afterward, the homeowner was in her bedroom with her 2-year-old grandchild when the same man entered the bedroom, held up a checkbook, grabbed a gun out from behind him and demanded cash.
The woman gave the man cash. He allegedly also took her wallet and then fled in his car, police said.
Police responding to the home invasion saw Nguyen’s car and stopped it. He stopped briefly, then fled at a high rate of speed, crashing and landing in a pond.
Nguyen was gone when police found the car.
At 9:07 a.m., police received a call that a man armed with a gun had forced his way into a senior care facility in Mendota Heights.
An employee told police that the man pulled a gun, forced her into a laundry room, took her wallet and fled.
As police evacuated the senior care facility, they received a report of what appeared to be blood inside an office building across the street, according to the Star Tribune report.
Police found Cory inside the suite, dead from a single gunshot to the head.
At the time of the jail attack, Nguyen was in custody for allegedly possessing about a pound of methamphetamine.
Douglas County District Attorney Mark Fruehauf said Monday that Nguyen paid a total of $12,000 in bail for both cases. Nguyen’s attorney in the matter could not be reached for comment.
Cory, of Maplewood, was a financial adviser for Edward Jones, which has offices in the building where the shooting occurred.
