A 40-year-old man is facing murder charges after he allegedly killed a 20-year-old woman he worked with using a sledgehammer at their job in Cokato, Minnesota. The attack happened early Tuesday morning at a metal working factory called Advanced Process Technologies, and has left everyone stunned.
According to Bring Me the News, David Bruce Delong from Watkins is accused of killing Amber Czech while they were both at work at 6 a.m. When emergency workers got to the factory, they found Czech with serious injuries to her head and a lot of blood loss. There was a bloody sledgehammer lying close by. Doctors tried to help her, but she died right there at the workplace.
When police arrested Delong, he told them “he had been planning to kill Czech for some time, and admitted to not liking her.” Right after the attack, he also went up to another worker and said: “I hit her with your hammer, she is by your toolbox, she is gone.”
The surveillance video tells a chilling story
Security cameras at the factory recorded what happened during the attack. The video shows Delong getting up from where he was working and walking over to where Czech was.
He picked up a sledgehammer and swung it at Czech, though she could not be seen on the camera. Police say Delong hit Czech five times with the hammer. The first hit was when she was still standing up, and then he hit her four more times after she fell to the ground.
Czech had finished high school at Hutchinson High School, where she was on the basketball team. Last year, she completed a 10-month program to learn welding at Alexandria Technical and Community College. Her family, friends, and people who knew her from school are all dealing with the pain of losing someone so young who was just starting out in her working life.
The company has stopped all work at the factory for the rest of this week. Advanced Process Technologies put out a statement saying they feel terrible about what happened and are thinking about the victim’s family and friends.
They said they are helping their workers get through this hard time. The office workers are doing their jobs from home while police continue looking into this terrible workplace killing.
“We are heartbroken by yesterday’s tragedy, and our thoughts are with the victim’s family and friends in this terrible moment. We are also making sure our employees have the support they need and working closely with law enforcement as they continue their investigation,” the statement read.
“Production at the facility has been paused for the remainder of the week, and administrative staff are working remotely.” Delong is being held at Wright County Jail while the case goes through the legal system. The fact that he planned the killing ahead of time makes this case even more disturbing, as he told police he had been thinking about doing this for a while before he actually did it.
Published: Nov 18, 2025 12:00 pm