PLYMOUTH, Minn. (FOX 9) - A Plymouth man is accused of shooting his girlfriend after a birthday party at their house and then driving to Wisconsin where he disposed of the gun.
Austin Robert LeClaire, 26, is charged with second-degree attempted murder after his 23-year-old girlfriend was found in their garage with a gunshot wound to the head on Nov. 25, according to court documents.
On the night of the shooting, Plymouth Police officers were dispatched to a house on the 14300 block of 40th Place and were flagged down by a neighbor who had LeClaire on the phone. He initially called 911 and told the dispatcher he was talking with his girlfriend on the phone when he heard a gun go off.
Officers entered the garage and found LeClaire’s girlfriend next to a vehicle lying on the ground in a pool of blood. She was transported to the hospital, and as of Friday, she remains in critical condition with "permanent, serious, life-threatening injuries," according to court documents.
LeClaire talked with the police on the phone and told them he heard his girlfriend breathing but not talking after the gun went off. He claimed he was at work during the shooting but was currently on his way home and should be there in about 20 minutes, according to the criminal complaint.
After not showing up for over an hour law enforcement found his location via cellphone data and saw he was in Wisconsin heading east. He was ultimately pulled over by law enforcement in Clark County and taken into custody.
A person who was at the couple’s home for a birthday party just before the shooting happened told investigators LeClaire called him 45 minutes after he left saying his "gun went off," and hit his girlfriend. LeClaire allegedly said he didn’t know what to do, and the person told him to call the police, the complaint states.
Investigators searched LeClaire’s vehicle and located boxes of ammunition, loaded magazines, and loose bullets but did not find a gun. LeClaire allegedly told law enforcement he had disassembled the gun while driving on Highway 29 in Wisconsin and threw the gun out of the passenger side window "possibly near a river," the complaint reads.
According to court documents, LeClaire showed "little concern" for his girlfriend during a three-hour interview with investigators. Cellphone records show he was texting people, including the man at the party and his grandmother, just an hour before the shooting complaining how his girlfriend was "on my last nerve" and "she has me so f---ing irate," the complaint reads.
LeClaire made his first court appearance on Friday. The judge set his bail at $500,000.