On September 3, 2025, troopers from the Minnesota State Patrol performed a traffic stop of a white Mazda on EB Highway 94 in Hennepin County, Minnesota. While troopers were out with the Driver, the front seat passenger, later identified as WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER RAY NELSON III [DOB REDACTED], Defendant herein, moved into the driver’s seat and fled the stop. A second passenger remained in the back seat. Shortly after, troopers located the white Mazda crashed nearby with the airbags deployed and the occupants gone.
Troopers noted two backpacks in the car. The first was on the back seat floorboard. The second was on the floorboard of the front passenger seat, and troopers noticed the muzzle of a Glock sticking out. Further inspection of the backpack from the front passenger floorboard revealed two handguns. The first gun was a Glock 30 with a round in the chamber. As troopers removed the gun from the backpack, a loaded high-capacity drum magazine fell out. The Glock 30 also had a “switch” attached to the back of the handgun.
The second gun was a Glock 20 with a round in the chamber as well as a loaded high-capacity magazine. As Troopers were out with the crashed vehicle, a hysterical woman approached them. The woman stated that her two sons were in the crashed vehicle, and she knew because she was tracking their cell phone locations. Troopers located three cell phones in the vehicle. The woman identified her two sons as Juvenile 1 and Defendant. While speaking with troopers, the woman received a phone call stating her two sons were at an address nearby.
Troopers responded to the address and located Juvenile 1 and Defendant. Once at the police station, Defendant gave a statement to police. He said after getting stopped, the Driver asked him to reach into the backpack on the front seat for his identification. Defendant said he touched a gun and got scared. This caused him to flee the scene in the Driver’s car. Review of trooper’s body worn camera shows that the Driver actually asked the rear passenger to reach into the backpack located on the rear floorboard of the vehicle to retrieve his identification, not the backpack on the front passenger floorboard.
Investigators obtained search warrants to collect the DNA of Juvenile 1, Defendant, and Driver. Investigators then submitted those swabs to the BCA alongside the two firearms for DNA comparison. Swabs taken from the grip and slide serrations of the Glock 30 with the switch attached were compared against the known DNA samples. Statistical calculation supports the exclusion of Defendant, Driver, and Juvenile 1 in the mixture. Swabs taken from the magazine that fell out of the Glock 30 with the switch were compared against the known DNA samples.
Statistical calculation supports the inclusion of Defendant’s DNA in the mixture and the exclusion of the Driver and Juvenile 1. Swabs from Glock 20 were compared against the known DNA samples. Statistical calculation supports the inclusion of Defendant’s DNA in the mixture and the exclusion of the Driver and Juvenile 1. Defendant is out of custody.
