Minnesota Man Charged in Coworker's Workplace Slaying

A 40-year-old Minnesota man has been charged with second-degree murder after bludgeoning his 20-year-old coworker to death with a sledgehammer at their workplace in Cokato, authorities said. The attack occurred on November 11 at Advanced Process Technologies, a manufacturing facility about 50 miles northwest of Minneapolis, where David Bruce Delong allegedly struck Amber Czech multiple times in a brutal assault captured on surveillance video.

According to charging documents filed by Wright County Attorney Brian Lutes, Delong left his workstation and approached Czech's area, where he picked up a sledgehammer. He first swung it horizontally toward her, and after she fell to the ground, he struck her four more times in a downward motion. Czech, who worked as a welder at the facility, suffered fatal blunt force trauma to the head and significant blood loss despite receiving medical attention at the scene. A bloody sledgehammer was found next to her body.

Immediately after the attack, Delong approached another coworker and confessed, stating, "I hit her with your hammer, she is by your toolbox, she is gone," prosecutors said. During a subsequent interview with investigators, Delong...