Police: Coworker Fatally Shot Woman in Parking Lot After She Refused His Advances

A coworker has been accused of fatally shooting a 28-year-old woman outside her workplace in St. Cloud, Minnesota, after she denied his romantic advances.

Nicole Hammond was found shot on October 24 outside a business on Lincoln Avenue, NBC News reported Thursday.

In a news release, the St. Cloud Police Department said when officers arrived at the scene, they attempted lifesaving measures but the victim had died.

“It appeared that the shooter had left the area prior to the arrival of police,” the department continued:

Through the course of the investigation officers were able to identify a suspect who was known to the victim. The suspect was located at a residence in Sauk Rapids at approximately 9:50 a.m. at which time he was taken into custody without incident and brought to the St. Cloud Police Department for questioning. A handgun was recovered as a result of the arrest. Based on the investigation the suspect 36-year-old Michael Jordan Carpenter of St. Cloud, was eventually transported to the Benton County Jail where he was held on charges related to homicide.

According to a probable cause statement, officials found Hammond lying on the ground with a pool of blood around her head and an autopsy showed she was shot in the neck and the bullet lodged in her left shoulder.

“In the investigation, police spoke with co-workers who indicated that Carpenter had made numerous advances toward Hammond, ‘but his advances had been repeatedly rebuffed over the course of the past month,’ the probable cause statement said,” the NBC report noted, adding the man was described as someone with a bad temper.

Per a criminal complaint, the two individuals were texting the night before the incident and the woman reportedly told the suspect she did not want him to touch or manipulate her.

“She also informed him to not make things uncomfortable at work,” the document said, according to Fox 9:

However, their boss claimed Hammond did not report the alleged harassment to a supervisor at work.

Rob Dubrow, the CEO of Dubrow, told the outlet, “We are very attuned to our staff’s needs, concerns. And anytime that there is anything that requires our intervention we step in. But in this case, we had no indication that there was anything awry.”

“Nicole always had a smile on her face and anybody that had any association with Nicole they couldn’t help but like her,” he added.

During questioning, Carpenter reportedly gave police contradictory statements about what happened before he was booked into jail.

In early October, rising violent crime across President Joe Biden’s (D) America began surfacing as the deciding issue for voters in the fast-approaching midterm elections, with a poll finding 77 percent of Americans view it as a significant problem, according to Breitbart News.