Police suspect that a man found in a Grand Forks hotel on Saturday was the victim of murder.
The man, identified by police as Jeffrey Allen Shulzitski, 55, of Grand Forks, had injuries consistent with "homicidal violence," according to a Dec. 7 release from the Grand Forks Police Department. The investigation into Shulzitski's death is active and ongoing but in its early stages, and information remains limited.
Grand Forks Police Lt. Jeremy Moe told the Herald that police are following up on several leads, and he believes that there are people involved who have knowledge of the circumstances of Shulzitski's death.
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Moe declined to comment on details, including the cause of death, the nature of the investigation, the identity of the initial caller and the owner of the hotel room.
"Unfortunately, as of right now with the investigation ongoing, I can't expound on anything further than what's in the press release right now," Moe said.
Officers were dispatched to the Budget Inn Expressway on Gateway Drive at about 2:20 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, to conduct a welfare check on Shulzitski, according to the release. He was found dead in one of the hotel rooms.
Police do not believe there is any further threat to the public.
Shulzitski was allegedly involved in the New Year's Eve murder of 24-year-old East Grand Forks man Kevin Weekley in 1989. According to Herald archives, Weekley was fatally shot during a robbery of his rural East Grand Forks home. His father, Rob Weekley, and his brother, Keith Weekley, also were injured during the incident.
In 1994, an East Grand Forks man approached police claiming he was with the suspects the night of the crime. He identified Shulzitski along with four other northern Minnesota men.
The other four suspects were indicted on first-degree murder charges and two counts of second-degree attempted murder in 1997. Shulzitski, then a 32-year-old inmate at the North Dakota State Penitentiary, was granted transactional immunity for his testimony to police.
Shulzitski's criminal history goes back to 1995 in Minnesota, when he was convicted of second-degree assault and was most recently convicted of terrorizing, knowing contact by bodily fluids with law enforcement, simple assault on a peace officer, preventing arrest, simple assault and disorderly conduct in 2017.
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