Plymouth man charged with second-degree murder in the death of his grandmother

Update (July 29, 2020)

The two victims who were hospitalized in critical condition following assaults by David Ekers have died. The criminal complaint has been amended to reflect the new charges.

Read the amended complaint (PDF).

Original press release

A Plymouth man has been charged with intentional second-degree murder in the death of his grandmother, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Friday.

David Ekers, 34, who was charged with intentional second-degree murder in the bludgeoning death of his grandmother, also faces two counts of attempted second-degree murder for assaulting his mother and sister. He made his first appearance July 10. His next scheduled court appearance is August 4 at 10:30 a.m.

According to the criminal complaint, on July 8, Maple Grove Police responded to a call from Ekers’ father, who told them his son had severely injured members of his family. Upon arrival, police found Ekers’ grandmother, mother and sister with serious headwounds, and they were immediately taken to the hospital.

Ekers’ father told police that he and his son were downstairs working, when Ekers went upstairs. The father heard his wife scream something to the effect of “David, no,” to which he ran upstairs and saw Ekers holding a wrench in his hand that he then dropped, the complaint states.

Ekers was taken to the police station where he admitted to trying to kill his grandmother, mother and sister. He viewed his father as an ally, and left him unscathed, the complaint says. Ekers proceeded to inform police that he struck his sister first, then attacked his grandmother before he assaulted his mother. He also admitted to planning the murder of the three victims an hour in advance of the actual attacks.

The cause for the assaults, according to Ekers, who suffers from mental illness, was that he believed the three victims would have him return to the hospital or start taking his medication again. The previous day, his mother mentioned he may need to go back to the hospital, the complaint continues.

Of the three victims who were transported to the hospital, the grandmother was found to have skull fractures and internal bleeding, injuries of which she would not survive. Her family elected to compassionately extubate for comfort care on July 9 and she died shortly after, the complaint states. The mother and sister remain in critical condition in intensive care.