Eagan road rage shooting: Savage man charged with 5 felonies

EAGAN, Minn. (FOX 9) - A road rage shooting on a busy Eagan interstate has landed a 20-year-old Savage man with five felony charges, according to court documents.

Antonio Carlos Grajeda Jr., 20, of Savage, is accused of opening fire on two vehicles during a road rage confrontation on Interstate 35E northbound on July 11.

Road rage turns into gunfire on Interstate 35E

What we know:

According to charges filed in Dakota County Court, at approximately 5:16 p.m. on July 11, officers were called to a weapons report on Interstate 35E northbound near Deerwood Drive in Eagan. A woman told officers she was driving northbound when she saw a white pickup truck swerving through traffic before ending up behind a grey sedan. The grey sedan swerved repeatedly to block the pickup truck from passing, and the two vehicles nearly collided.

The complaint states that near Diffley Road, the pickup truck managed to pass the sedan. That's when the woman said she heard four to five gunshots. She swerved to get away from the pickup truck, heard glass shattering and pulled to the shoulder. After calling 911, she realized her vehicle had been struck by a projectile. Officers on scene found a dent in the hood of her vehicle and impact damage on the windshield, and determined the projectile came from in front of her car. A spent 9mm shell casing was also recovered from the left shoulder of the interstate just before the Diffley Road intersection.

The complaint states officers also responded to a nearby business where a second vehicle — a grey sedan — was found with bullet damage. That vehicle was occupied by two men. One of the men told officers he was driving northbound on I-35E when the white pickup truck came up from behind and began aggressively engaging with him. When the truck finally passed on the passenger side, the man said he flipped off the driver. He then heard gunfire and knew he was being shot at. The other man told officers he had been asleep in the front passenger seat and was woken up by the sound of the shots.

Investigators later searched the man's impounded vehicle and found four suspected bullet defects. The first was in the front hood, with a trajectory that passed through the engine compartment. The second was in the passenger door under the side mirror, where officers recovered a silver-colored projectile and a copper-colored jacket from inside the door. The third and fourth defects were to the hood and windshield, which officers believed were caused by the same projectile.

How investigators identified Grajeda

The backstory:

The complaint states traffic camera footage from the area at the time of the shooting led officers to a white Ford F150 registered to Grajeda. Investigators were able to track the vehicle before and after the shooting, and noted that its rear window was intact before the shooting but the driver's side of the rear window was broken afterward.

Cell phone location data placed Grajeda near I-35E and Diffley Road at the time of the shooting. Surveillance video from a nearby apartment complex then showed Grajeda next to the white pickup truck alongside four other individuals who had been in the parking lot before his arrival. In the video, Grajeda and the others appear to clear glass and debris from the bed of the truck, cover the rear window with plastic and place tape over what appeared to be bullet holes in the tailgate. Grajeda also placed several containers into another vehicle while in the parking lot.

The complaint states on July 29, officers executed a search warrant at Grajeda's residence and seized his cell phone, the keys to his Ford F150 and a locked gun safe. Inside the safe, officers found empty magazines for a .40 caliber handgun and a 9mm handgun, as well as the title for the Ford F150. The truck itself and any 9mm handguns were not found at the residence.

On July 31, officers executed a search warrant on a storage unit rented by Grajeda, using a key attached to the previously seized Ford F150 key ring to gain access. Inside, they found a truck tailgate that appeared to match the one from the Ford F150 used during the shooting. The tailgate had two defects that appeared to be bullet holes caused by projectiles exiting the passenger cabin toward the rear of the vehicle. Grajeda's access code was used to enter the storage facility on July 14 and July 24, and surveillance video from outside the unit appeared to show Grajeda and another individual placing the tailgate inside on July 14.

The complaint states a data extraction from Grajeda's cell phone also showed that approximately an hour after the shooting, one of the individuals seen with him in the parking lot surveillance video sent him several screenshots of news updates related to the shooting. Investigators also confirmed that the last time Grajeda's cell phone connected to the Ford F150 was on July 13.

Charges and potential consequences

What we don't know:

Grajeda faces two counts of drive-by shooting toward an occupied motor vehicle or building and three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon. A warrant has been issued for his arrest. 

Crime and Public SafetyEagan