Crime & Safety
Man Charged with Firing Gun Through Burnsville Hotel Room Doors
Police say Marvin Robert Uecker Jr. fired a revolver through the door of a Burnsville hotel room, and the bullet pierced the door across the hall, frightening a man and a woman and causing them to flee the hotel.
A man has been charged with firing a revolver through the door of a Burnsville hotel room in September, forcing a couple across the hall to flee when the bullet also pierced their room door.
Marvin Robert Uecker Jr., 39, is charged with reckless discharge of a firearm within a municipality, a felony with a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
According to the criminal complaint, a Burnsville police officer on patrol was driving through a parking lot just after midnight on Sept. 1 when he spotted a man and a woman waving their arms to get his attention.
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The couple said they were guests at InTown Suites on County Road 42 West and they had been in their room when they heard a loud bang, and holes suddenly appeared in the outer door and the closet door of their room.
The man said he looked into the hallway and saw a similar hole in the door across the hall. That door opened, and a man subsequently identified as Uecker and a woman appeared; both appeared to be drunk, the man told police.
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Uecker told the man that he had accidentally fired a .45-caliber revolver, according to the complaint. The couple staying across the hall were frightened and left the hotel to find a police officer.
Police responded to the hotel and took note of the holes in the hotel room doors. They knocked on Uecker’s door and initially didn’t get a response; however, after police pounded loudly on the door, Uecker answered and was arrested.
Uecker told police that the woman was still in the room, along with the gun. The woman “was not cooperative,” and officers had to force their way into the room to arrest her, according to the complaint.
Police found the gun, loaded and ready to fire in the bottom drawer of a dresser.
Uecker subsequently admitted that he thought the gun was unloaded, and while he was handling it, it discharged, according to the complaint. Police followed the bullet’s trajectory and found it in back of the hotel’s parking lot.
Uecker is scheduled to make a first appearance on the charge Nov. 19 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.
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