New details emerge of fatal shootings at Super 8

The final investigative report of the deadly Jan. 8 shooting at the Super 8 hotel in Cloquet revealed new information, including that the shooter had subcontracted with the city of Cloquet and recently relapsed into drug use. It also expanded information already released. Shooter Nicholas Elliot Lenius, 32, appeared to be having mental health problems and did not know his two victims: Cloquet resident and Super 8 employee Shelby Trettel, 22, and Patrick Jeffrey Roers, a 35-year-old Deer River man.

The Cloquet Police Department released the data after Carlton County Attorney Lauri Ketola completed her review of the investigative report on Wednesday.

According to descriptions detailed in close to a dozen narrative reports by law enforcement, the scene at the hotel was chaotic when police and paramedics responded to the 911 call from Trettel's co-worker, who found Trettel wounded on the floor in the front lobby area. No one had witnessed the attack, which police soon determined was a shooting.

While first responders began life-saving measures on Trettel, a Cloquet police officer followed footprints leading out of the hotel to find Roers in his truck, already deceased from multiple gunshot wounds. He followed footprints from the truck eastbound in the parking lot and found a third male, Lenius, lying on his back in the snow, still breathing. Medics responded but Lenius, the shooter, died soon after. They also located a handgun next to his body

Police believed there could still be an active shooter and issued a "shelter in place" order to residents in the area. First responders staged in the parking lot near the Aldi store, a safer distance from the hotel.

Hotel manager Gloria Witte and an employee helped Cloquet police Sgt. Nate Cook access the hotel camera surveillance system, which showed Lenius' actions and helped police determine he was the shooter.

Background

Trettel, who died at a hospital in Duluth, had worked at the hotel since she was 15 or 16. Roers was in town working for a company cutting trees around power lines, along with his roommate at the hotel. His roommate said they'd eaten pizza after checking in, and Roers went out to smoke in his car.

Lenius worked for a company subcontracted with the city to replace water meters in homes and businesses in Cloquet. Although the company is not named in the police investigation, city records show the council hired Dakota Supply Group, or DSG, to replace roughly 3,700 water meters in the city in December 2023.

Assistant public works director Ross Biebl told police Lenius had essentially been the project lead and was "the best installer they had." Biebl had seen no indications of drug use in his interactions with Lenius, who was in and out of town since last summer, and back for a week in January.

The company's regional project manager, Ryan Schaeffer, told police he had become friends with Lenius over three years of working together, and was aware he had previous drug abuse issues.

According to court filings, Lenius' most serious brushes with the law were two gross misdemeanor DUI arrests in 2013 and 2014, which led to jail time, work release, and probation. When serving a monthlong jail sentence in May 2015 for the second DUI, a required urine sample showed methamphetamine in his system.

Breakdown

It was Schaeffer whom Lenius messaged "WTF is going on" at 6:26 p.m. Jan. 8. The 911 call about the shooting came in at 6:34 p.m.

According to the report, Schaeffer called him a minute or two later and asked "What's up." Lenius responded but he wasn't making any sense, Schaeffer said.

He also asked Lenius why he was breathing heavily. He told police Lenius didn't answer and "just rambled." A prior Cloquet police news release said Lenius had told a work associate he was dealing with "monsters."

Schaeffer told police the only other time he'd seen Lenius like that was in rambling SnapChat messages between Christmas and New Year's, when he admitted he had relapsed.

Cook spoke to the shooter's mother around 5 a.m., more than 10 hours after the shooting. She confirmed she owned a gun that Lenius carried around regularly when he was working in Cloquet. She also mentioned he had social anxiety and had used drugs in the past, she thought. He had been clean, but relapsed over Christmas, she told investigators. She also mentioned an incident where he had to be hospitalized due to not sleeping and hallucinating from drug use.

Police say the autopsy report showed Lenius had methamphetamine in his system.

"The suspect may have been experiencing a mental health episode, potentially compounded by the influence of drugs," Cloquet police chief Derek Randall said in a news release earlier this month.

Police found no evidence of any prior contact between Lenius and his victims, outside of being at the same hotel.

Had he lived, it appears Lenius would have been charged with second-degree murder: with intent, but not

premeditated.