Woman Charged After Gunfire Allegedly Sends Bullet Into Neighboring Inver Grove Heights Apartment
Dakota County Jail Booking Photo
INVER GROVE HEIGHTS: A 26-year-old woman has been charged with a felony after authorities say she intentionally fired a handgun inside an Inver Grove Heights apartment, sending a bullet through multiple walls and into a neighboring apartment where a resident was sleeping.
Jacqueline Perez Dothe is charged in Dakota County District Court with intentional discharge of a firearm under circumstances that endanger the safety of another.
According to the criminal complaint, Inver Grove Heights police responded to an apartment complex on Upper 55th Street on Aug. 15 after receiving a report that a bullet had entered a resident's apartment.
The resident told officers she heard a loud bang during the early morning hours and later discovered a bullet hole through the entrance door of her apartment. The bullet allegedly continued through the door of a hallway closet before becoming lodged in a closet wall adjacent to the resident's bedroom, where she had been sleeping.
The complaint states the resident was frightened and tearful while speaking with officers and said she could have been struck had she been walking around her apartment at the time.
Authorities determined from the bullet's trajectory that the shot allegedly originated from an apartment across the hallway. Officers also observed a bullet hole in a wall across from the resident's door, according to the probable cause statement.
Police entered the apartment and detained three people who allegedly had not responded to officers pounding on the door and announcing themselves.
After speaking with the three individuals, authorities learned that Perez Dothe had allegedly been drinking with the others before picking up a handgun, aiming it at a wall and firing a single round from the dining room, according to the complaint.
Police searched the apartment and allegedly found a spent shell casing in the dining room. A firearm was also located in Perez Dothe's bedroom with one round missing from its magazine, the complaint states.
The felony charge carries a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.
The allegations contained in the criminal complaint have not been proven in court, and Perez Dothe is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.