Fingerprints Link Fugitive Suspect to Wayzata Burglary Scene

Police are searching for a 33-year-old man from Elk River suspected of burglarizing a Wayzata apartment complex.

An active arrest warrant has been issued for Christopher Wall after officers were unable to locate him at his only known address, according to the criminal complaint filed this week and signed by Investigator Mike Murphy of the Wayzata Police Department.

Wayzata police were first dispatched to the Gleason Lake apartment complex at 4 a.m. back on May 25 of 2012 after an alarm was triggered. Review of security footage showed a white male in his late 20s pry open the building’s front door and enter a community room where a large, flat-screen television was mounted.

The Hennepin County Crime Lab responded to the scene and was able to lift several fingerprints from the television set—which had been tampered with. Those fingerprints were entered into the Midwest Automated Fingerprint Identification Network and last month were positively matched to Wall. 

A post on the Wayzata Police Department’s Facebook page read, in part, that the Gleason Lake Apartment building’s management “got tired of people stealing their stuff, so they installed alarms on their flat screen TVs in the party room. WPD responded to one such alarm last May to find the front door of the complex had been pried open. A 46" TV in the party room was found unplugged, but that sounded the alarm and scared the burglar off."

Wall has been charged with one count of third-degree burglary, a felony. He could face up to five years in prison if convicted and given the maximum sentence.  

Any information as to Wall’s whereabouts should be directed to the Wayzata Police Department.