Hopkins man accused of murder after police doubt his explanation for girlfriend’s death

Charges are now filed against a man who police say gave a suspicious account for how he fatally shot his girlfriend in their Hopkins home over the weekend.

Krystofer Patrick Brooks, 20, was charged on Jan. 6 in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of 19-year-old Skylar Kathleen Kiehl in an apartment in the 1300 block of Cambridge Street just before 3:30 p.m.

Brooks, who has been in jail since the shooting, is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail ahead of a court appearance on Jan. 7. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

Search warrant affidavits filed in court cleared the way for police to seize evidence from the apartment including a handgun, a spent bullet, blood and various recreational drugs.

The filings, along with the subsequent criminal complaint, gave this account of the shooting and Brooks’ version of events:

Brooks called 911 and said he was “cleaning and/or unloading his gun” in the couple’s bedroom when the gun went off. Officers arrived and saw Kiehl on the bed with a gunshot wound to the head.

The officers found the gun, its hammer cocked, on a chair next to the bed. It had a loaded magazine inside and a round in the chamber.

After his arrest, Brooks said he pointed the gun toward the bedroom window and pulled the trigger. He said Kiehl, his girlfriend for the past two years, was lying in bed and sat up just as the gun went off.

Brooks said he didn’t try to save his girlfriend “because of where she was hit, he knew she was dead,” the complaint read.

Police saw texts between Brooks and his mother that read, “I just killed Skyler on accident omg. ... The gun should have been empty.”

The filings noted that “given how the body was lying and a lack of blood in the window area of the bedroom, [there is] some concern the suspect may not be providing accurate details for how the shooting occurred.”