Star Tribune
Suspect arrested after threats triggered University of Minnesota safety alerts
A man suspected of threatening to shoot students at the University of Minnesota was arrested Thursday afternoon after an apparent standoff at his home in southwestern Minnesota.
Joseph Rongstad, 41, was arrested just after 4:15 p.m. “safely, without incident,” Chippewa County Sheriff Derek Olson said in a Facebook post.
Rongstad was booked into Chippewa County Jail on probable cause for felony-level threats of violence, Olson wrote in a follow-up post.
The Sheriff’s Office said Rongstad began threatening to shoot students in posts made Wednesday on Facebook. The threats triggered a series of Thursday morning alerts by the university to stay away from campus. It was later determined Rongstad never came to the Twin Cities.
Rongstad is a former mayor of Watson, a town of less than 200 people in Chippewa County, about 135 miles west of the Twin Cities. He also posted on Facebook about the standoff before it was resolved.
Early Thursday afternoon, the university issued a campus-wide all-clear message, saying the authorities had found and “contained” the suspect. “Campus can resume normal operations,” the message said.
“My understanding is Chippewa County sheriff’s [deputies] have this individual surrounded in his home,” university spokesman Jake Ricker told the Star Tribune.
The Sheriff’s Office did not immediately confirm details of the apparent standoff, but it earlier confirmed that Rongstad was suspected of posting the threats.
As the situation in Watson continued into the afternoon, Rongstad kept up his social media posts, including a photo of an armored tactical vehicle outside his window just before 1 p.m.
Although the Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged, Rongstad’s name and other identifying information were widely disseminated during the brief manhunt.
The university began issuing safety alerts about 7:20 a.m. The school said its police force and other agencies had sent additional officers to the campus.
“Public Safety has received a specific threat to shoot persons on the [Twin Cities] campus … from Joseph Mark Rongstad,” the initial university safety notice read.
A second alert soon after said campus operations would proceed normally, but employees were encouraged to work remotely. Students initially did not receive the same direction to avoid campus, but shortly after 10 a.m., another alert warned them to stay away.
A final alert about 1 p.m. confirmed that authorities had found Rongstad in his home in Watson and were working to arrest him.
Olson said the Sheriff’s Office notified the university when the flurry of threatening posts began Wednesday.
Olson said he then had deputies “staged at the [man’s] residence” should Rongstad appear. He said Rongstad’s relatives were at the home as well.
Ricker said he was not aware of any connection Rongstad has to the university. The threats, he said, did not single out any individuals but rather were a “general threat of gun violence.”
Olson told the Star Tribune that Rongstad’s hourslong, threat-filled rant was posted on his landscape company’s Facebook page.
Other postings made explicit threats to Olson and Chippewa County judges Thomas Van Hon and Keith Helgeson. In 2016, Van Hon ordered Rongstad civilly committed for six months as mentally ill and chemically dependent.
Court records show that Rongstad has a criminal history in Minnesota that includes convictions for burglary, theft, drunken driving and illicit drug possession.
In 2021, he was convicted of burglary after driving a tractor through the narthex of a Lutheran church in Watson, where he was elected mayor in 2012. A police officer found Rongstad wrapped in a blanket on the altar, according to the criminal complaint.
A judge set aside a 15-month prison sentence and ordered Rongstad jailed for 30 days and placed on probation for five years. The threats to the university violate his probationary terms.
In 2016, Rongstad was sentenced to nine months in jail after pleading guilty to burglarizing the home of a man who succeeded him as mayor. At the time, The deal also dismissed charges from when he allegedly fired a rifle through the sunroof of his truck while he was “trying to get away from the corpses that were after him,” according to court documents.
The U.S. Department of Education wrote in a report released in September that “active shooter incidents represent a small subset of the possible gun violence or serious violent incidents that occur at schools.
The department recorded 18 such incidents at colleges from 2000 to 2021, though researchers noted that many schools moved online in 2020 during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Staff writers Liz Navratil and Greta Kaul contributed to this report.
“Even though there’s a lot of energy, creativity and hard work going on around downtown, never have we been more aligned in the direction we’re heading,” Duininck said.
To execute its plan, the city is convening a Downtown Action Council, a group that consists of representatives from the business, nonprofit and government sectors, including the Minnesota Vikings, Target and the Guthrie Theater.
A top priority for the group, from July 2024 to 2026, will be helping figure out the long-awaited transformation of Nicollet Mall into a pedestrian-only corridor. A task force Frey convened called the Vibrant Downtown Storefronts Workgroup made that suggestion and others for the thoroughfare back in June 2023. The city and its partners will have to determine where to move bus traffic and stops, but Frey said Marquette and Second avenues are ripe for that transition.
The plan would also focus time and resources on downtown’s Warehouse District, which Frey said “has the potential to be an entertainment Mecca.” The blocks between the North Loop and the central business district could have a social district that allows open containers, billboards and lights that help attract visitors from around the state.
“I’m not arguing that the Warehouse District is going to be like Times Square,” Frey said. “But I am arguing that we can create our own version of it right here in Minneapolis.”
Officials also emphasized efforts to make it easier for developers to convert downtown office buildings to housing and other uses. Frey touted the city’s Vibrant Storefronts initiative, which has been connecting property owners with vacant storefronts to local artists.
Star Tribune
Two more victims from encampment shootings identified as Mayor Frey says, ‘This is about fentanyl.’
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner has identified three murder victims from two separate shootings at homeless encampments this weekend in Minneapolis as three others were left with life-threatening injuries.
Christopher Martell Washington, 38, of Fridley, and Louis Mitchell Lemons, Jr., 32, of Brooklyn Center, were identified Monday afternoon as the two men who died from multiple gunshot wounds on Sunday afternoon in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue. Deven Leonard Caston, 31, was identified as the victim at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. that happened Saturday.
Minneapolis Police Spokesman Sgt. Garrett Parten, said it was unclear if there was a connection between the shootings but “we can’t rule it out.”
The city has dealt with several shootings in and around homeless encampments this year. Mayor Jacob Frey attended a news conference Sunday after the shooting on Snelling Avenue and said the city needs to continue to provide options for people seeking shelter. But, he said, encampments are not an alternative answer.
“Yet again we have more people that are dead,” he said. “We need to be honest and realistic about what is happening right now. We need to call a spade a spade. This is not about a lack of shelter. This is about fentanyl.”
Officers initially detained three people in the shooting of Washington and Lemons Jr., but were released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No charges had been filed in either shooting as of Monday.
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of Sunday’s shooting. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.”
Inside Paper Source, which has been in the mall since 2016, senior sales lead Carrie Helman-Menard said foot traffic has changed at the mall.
“It is quiet,” she said. “This street was a lot different even, you know, six years ago. The hobby stores down that way closed. Salut, closed. Anthropolgie, closed. J Crew, etc. There were a lot more people bustling, shopping.”
Grand, she said, can be that way again, but it “needs businesses. Needs people.”
A new development at Grand and Victoria could be just what’s needed, she said.
“People will come,” she said, pointing to her store’s customers continuing to walk through Paper Source’s door. “They get excited that something’s here. People are grateful. They’ll come in here and say, ‘Oh my god, I’m so glad you’re here.’ So that feels good. A lot of people want that hustle and bustle back.”
Simon Taghioff, president of the Summit Hill Association board, said Parritz made “an information only” presentation to the board earlier this month. Parritz, he said, shared “a lot of optimism in how it could transform that corner in a positive way.”
