Murder charges: Gun-hoarding Brooklyn Park man with mental illness history ‘just lost it,’ shot woman

A 29-year-old man with a history of mental illness unleashed a flurry of gunfire and fatally shot a woman in Brooklyn Park this week at an apartment complex where he lives.

James A. Nedeau II was charged Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court with one count of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder in connection with the shooting Monday afternoon of Deana Cathlene Doely, 29, of Brooklyn Park.

Nedeau was arrested that afternoon and remains jailed in lieu of $1.5 million bail. He appeared in court Thursday afternoon and is due back in court March 22. His attorney was not immediately available for comment.

Court records show that Nedeau was civilly committed by a judge to a Twin Cities hospital in January 2020 for bouts of schizophrenia and paranoia after he threatened to blow up his apartment building and shoot people with an assault-style rifle.

Under questioning by police soon after Monday’s shooting, Nedeau said, “[I] just lost it,” the complaint read. He said his father slapped him as they argued, and he slapped him in return. Doely said she was going to call police, and he shot her.

“He stated that he doesn’t have an excuse for taking [Doely’s life],” the charges continued. “[He] stated that he was trying to kill [his father] and the apartment manager.”

According to the criminal complaint:

“The call then captured 18 shots being fired while a man screamed [a profanity],” the complaint read.

Officers arrived at the office to the smell of fresh gun powder and found Doely dead from the gunfire.

Nedeau’s father told law enforcement that he was in his son’s apartment complex and began arguing with him. Nedeau slapped his father, pointed a gun and threatened to kill him. A man nearby pushed the gun away. Nedeau went to the complex’s office, opened fire and shouted, “I’m going to kill all you ...” the complaint quoted him as saying.

Nedeau then went to the fifth floor and fired several shots into the door of an apartment where a resident ducked for her life under a dining table 4 feet from the door.

A woman on the fifth floor heard Nedeau say to himself, “See what you did. You made me kill that [expletive],” the charges said.