Chisholm MN Man Killed in Argument with Son
Chisholm man killed in argument with son
Chuck Haga, Star Tribune
Published October 3, 2003 CHIS03
CHISHOLM, MINN. -- As Thursday morning's first light filtered through the jack pines surrounding their remote home just north of the Superior National Forest, David Menton's sons still slept.
They would be late -- David Jr., 20, for work, his 13-year-old brother for school -- and their father was angry.
He also had been drinking, David Jr. would later tell sheriff's deputies.
The father shook his younger son awake, then David Jr. They argued, then they struggled.
That's as far as their confrontations usually went, friends of the boys said. But Thursday was different.
David Sr., 43, who worked as a bartender in the little town of Togo a few miles to the northwest, grabbed a rifle. It was loaded, ready to use. He fired a shot in David Jr.'s direction, according to the son's account to investigators. It missed.
Sheriff's deputies gather outside David Menton home.Lee BloomquistDuluth News Tribune Via Associated PressDavid Jr. picked up a 12-gauge shotgun, also loaded. He aimed at his father, still holding the rifle, and fired, hitting him in the head and killing him.
David Jr. put down the shotgun and called 911.
The call came into the St. Louis County Sheriff's 911 center in Virginia, Minn., about 7:30 a.m., Sheriff Ross Litman said.
Officers went to the residence, in Sturgeon Township about 18 miles north of Chisholm, where they found Menton dead and his sons waiting.
David Menton Jr. "said that he and his father had been in a physical confrontation and it escalated," Litman said at an afternoon news conference in Duluth. "His father fired a round from a rifle at him, and David shot him with a shotgun."
David Jr. was taken to a county jail in Virginia, where he was being held on suspicion of second-degree murder until an investigation determines whether he should be charged or that he acted in self-defense, the sheriff said.
His younger brother, who Litman said witnessed the shooting, was taken to a shelter.
Both guns were taken for tests, and authorities also planned to test for gunshot residue on the hands of David Jr. and his father. Investigators will look at those results, blood spatters and other physical evidence "to see if it all fits" with the boys' account of what happened.
Both firearms had been fired, Litman said, and "all indications are the father fired the rifle."
No previous trouble
The boys' mother, who is divorced from their father, lives in Douglas County, Wis.
David Menton Sr. had lived in the secluded Sturgeon Township house for less than two years, Litman said, and his sons for a shorter time. He said he did not know whether the younger son was visiting or what the custody arrangement was.
Neither the father nor the older son had been in trouble with the law in St. Louis County, the sheriff said, and there are no records of officers being called to the residence before Thursday.
As investigators continued to study the shooting scene Thursday night, three friends of the 13-year-old boy walked down the gravel road that leads to it. They said they're schoolmates of his in nearby Cook, where the boy started eighth grade when he arrived in northern Minnesota a few weeks ago. His older brother arrived late this summer, they said.
As they tried to peer past the yellow police tape and through the trees and thick brush, a woman drove up with the 13-year-old to retrieve some of his clothes and other things.
His friends were able to talk with him briefly.
"I got him to smile," a tearful Cassie Radosevich, 15, said as she and her cousin, Chelsea Radosevich, 14, and Gary Milton, 16, headed back down the road, arms linked and eyes red from crying.
The younger brother plays football and made friends quickly, Cassie said. "And he was a master at chess," she said, smiling. "He was really good. His dad taught him."
She shook her head.
"I know it's not good," she said. "He was right there, and he saw it. He had the blood spatters on him. I know it's something he'll never forget."
She said that they had dated a few times, but his father "didn't like me" and discouraged his son from seeing her.
"I don't know why," she said. "I thought his dad was cool -- when he wasn't drinking. We've been around him when he's drunk, and then he's not that nice a guy.
"They'd fight a lot. But that's normal. He was hard on both of them, but they'd get out of line sometimes, and that's a dad's job . . .
"I never thought anything like this would happen. I know that David didn't mean to do it -- to shoot his dad."
He must have felt he needed to protect himself or his brother, she said.
"They're really tight," she said. "When it comes to his little brother, he's really protective. He'd do anything to keep him safe.
"But it was the same with his dad. He'd do anything for his dad, too."
Chuck Haga is at [email protected].