Accused of shooting his father three times after an argument, a 23-year-old Evanston man is in jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond.
The case evidentiary affidavit alleges that Ethan Grasse shot his father Michael Grasse, 49, at least three times with a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol Saturday morning after the pair fought throughout the day Friday.
Ethan Grasse wrote in a request for release that he simply didn’t know who was breaking into his room at 4 a.m.
“That doesn’t excuse what I did but im (sic) so sorry to my family and to my dad,” he wrote in the document, which Cowboy State Daily obtained Monday from Evanston Circuit Court. “But I want you, my family and the world to know I did not mean to kill any one just defend myself from an unknown intruder.”
Ethan Grasse appeared Monday morning in Evanston Circuit Court, the court clerk’s office confirmed to Cowboy State Daily.
His preliminary hearing, where he’ll have the chance to argue the state’s assertion of probable cause, is set for Dec. 1, says his court file.
He faces between 20 years and life in prison if convicted of the second-degree murder charge he faces.
The Shooting
Early Saturday, Evanston Police Department Officer James Schmidt learned of a shooting on Granite Drive in Evanston, says an affidavit Schmidt wrote that was filed with the court Monday.
On scene, Officer Zach Marler told Schmidt that Grasse had shot his father multiple times with a .22-caliber pistol, added Schmidt.
Ethan Grasse was taken to the Evanston Police Department, where Detective Scott Faddis read him his Miranda rights, says the document.
The affidavit relates that Ethan said Michale had been drinking Friday, and the two of them fought throughout the day.
“In the course of the interview, Ethan Grasse admitted to shooting his father several times with a .22-caliber pistol that he kept in his room,” the document says.
Schmidt wrote that police obtained a search warrant and found a Taurus pistol in Ethan’s room, along with three spent .22-caliber shell casings, which matched one unspent round still in the pistol’s chamber.
Michael was taken to the Evanston Regional Hospital with three gunshot wounds, the document says, adding that he was pronounced dead at 4:22 a.m. Saturday.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
