Stewartville, MN (KROC-AM News) – The Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office says deputies arrested a Stewartville man who reportedly threatened to shoot a store dead Friday morning.
Sheriff-Captain James Schueller said an 911 caller reported concerns about her sister’s safety and requested a welfare check around 6:20 a.m. had called the store and said she had COVID and needed to be sent home.
When workers at work learned the woman didn’t have COVID, Smith reportedly called the company back and threatened to shoot it down with an AR-15 if the woman wasn’t sent home. Smith is said to have called the company 8-10 more times while MPs were on site and at one point told employees, “Your time is up,” according to Schueller.
Photo of the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office
Deputies learned that Smith may have called from the woman’s home and was given a key and floor plan to the unit. Schueller said law enforcement gained access to the home and arrested Smith without further incident. Deputies did not find an AR-15 in the apartment.
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Smith then reportedly threatened to take a deputy’s rifle and described himself as the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Deputy Killer while he was being taken to the Olmsted County Detention Center for Adults. Meanwhile, the woman told deputies that Smith had attacked and threatened to kill her earlier in the day when he was following her to work, Schueller said.
Smith was jailed on suspicion of two counts of theft and trespassing. He is awaiting his arraignment in Olmsted County Court.
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