Colton Shaffer is accused of shooting and stabbing a man
Colton Shaffer is charged with second-degree murder after police found a man shot and stabbed in a bathtub, police in Utica, New York, said. (Oneida County Jail)
A person in Utica, New York, called 911 on Saturday after seeing blood coming from the ceiling of the apartment.
Officers went into the apartment and discovered what was actually blood dripping from the ceiling onto the floor, Utica police said in a press release. Officers went upstairs to the apartment above to conduct a welfare check on the people inside. They knocked and answered, and a man came out “covered in blood,” police said. He immediately locked the door behind him and was taken into custody while officers conducted further investigations.
When officers entered the apartment, they saw a “large pool of blood and what appeared to be an area where something had been dragged through the apartment,” the release said. The police then found a deceased man in the bathtub. The Major Crimes Unit and the Criminal Investigations Unit have been tasked with the investigation. The victim, who cannot be identified until his family can be notified, was “shot multiple times, stabbed multiple times and sustained other injuries in the incident,” according to police.
More on Law&Crime: “I just killed someone:” Police officers reportedly found a decapitated body with “viscera protruding” in the living room and the head in the bathtub
The man police found covered in blood was identified as 25-year-old Colton Shaffer. He is charged with second-degree murder and two counts of possession of a firearm. Additional fees may apply. Shaffer was taken to the Oneida County Jail. Authorities did not provide a motive for the killing or the relationship between Shaffer and the victim.
According to the New York Department of Corrections, Shaffer spent just over a year in prison for burglary before being released in September 2022. He spent a year on probation and has since been released, records show.
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