Police: Man Who Killed 2 at Cloquet Motel Didn’t Know Victims, Had Meth in System

Cloquet police officials say the man who shot and killed two people at a motel in Cloquet in January did not know the victims and had methamphetamine in his system at the time of the shootings.

Cloquet Police Chief Derek Randall said in a press release that 32-year-old Nicholas Lenius may have been experiencing a mental health episode, potentially compounded by the influence of drugs. During interviews, officers discovered Lenius had contacted a coworker and referenced dealing with “monsters.”

Randall says his department has analyzed all available information about the tragic shooting at the Super 8 motel on Jan. 9. The victims in the shooting were 22-year-old Shellby Trettel, a worker at the motel, and 35-year-old Patrick Roers of Deer River, who was in his truck in the parking lot of the motel.

Lenius was found dead outside the motel with a weapon nearby. Authorities used hotel surveillance video to determine that Lenius was the shooter and that he turned the gun on himself.