Man, 25, Charged with Murder After Apartment Residents See Him 'Dragging a Dead Body' By Ingrid Vasquez

A Minnesota man has been charged with murder after neighbors reported seeing him “dragging a dead body” out of his apartment.

According to a press release from the Richfield Police Department, “numerous emergency telephone calls” came in at approximately 3:12 a.m., local time on Saturday, Dec. 13, from residents reporting a male “dragging a dead body” out of an apartment and loading it into a vehicle.

A statement of probable cause obtained by PEOPLE states that a 911 caller said she saw a man carrying a woman outside who appeared to be bleeding and “already appeared dead.” She told the man to stop, but he left the building, police said in the court document.

When officers arrived, they observed “what appeared to be blood splatters on the ground and wall.”

Officers followed the apparent blood stains along the hallway and saw an apartment that appeared to have blood stains on the door. After going inside, they discovered “a large amount of apparent blood on the carpet and wall in the entry way,” the probable cause statement states.

Officers then located the car that the male, identified as 25-year-old Yusuf Ali Salat, had left in; it was speeding and ran a red light.

His vehicle stopped at the emergency department at Fairview Southdale, where the victim was removed from the backseat of the car and pronounced dead.

Although her name has not been released, the Richfield Police Department said in its press release that she was a 23-year-old female.

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Officers also spoke with other residents of the apartment. One witness recalled that he had been asleep when he heard pounding on his door.

“When Witness 1 opened the door, he said he saw a woman lying on the floor who did not respond to his questions. Witness 1 reported then hearing a man banging on the window and then dragging the woman up the stairs and ‘stuffed’ her into a vehicle,” the probable cause statement states.

The probable cause statement claims Salat said that the victim shot herself. However, an autopsy determined that the victim was shot once on the back of her shoulder, and the bullet went through her liver.

A Glock 9mm handgun was found in the snow outside the balcony of the apartment where Salat and the victim lived, according to the probable cause statement.

A 9mm magazine was also in a trash bag on the balcony, and a casing was recovered next to the garbage bag on the balcony.

Salat is charged with murder in the 2nd degree, without intent, while committing a felony, and first-degree possession of 50 grams or more of cocaine or methamphetamine after drugs were found in the apartment.

In a cabinet above the refrigerator, officers say they recovered two packages containing approximately 445.91 grams of field-tested positive marijuana and 440.52 grams of presumed marijuana.

Two packages with about 200 grams of presumed marijuana and 137.70 grams of marijuana were also found in a kitchen cabinet, police said in the court document, adding that officers recovered a package containing approximately 71.56 grams of a rock-like substance that field-tested positive for cocaine in another kitchen cabinet. Approximately 75.79 grams of presumed marijuana was seized from behind the living room couch.

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Salat’s bail is set at $500,000, and his next court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 17, according to his booking record.