Former rural mayor charged with threatening to kill U students said he just wanted to talk to Secret Service

A former small-town mayor in southwestern Minnesota said he never intended to follow through on threats to shoot students last week at the University of Minnesota but was only trying to get the Secret Service to come to his home, according to felony charges.

Joseph M. Rongstad, 41, of Watson was charged in Chippewa County District Court with illegal possession of ammunition and threats of violence in connection with the threats he posted on social media over two days and into the overnight hours of Jan. 11.

Rongstad appeared in court Thursday and remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail ahead of a hearing on Feb. 14. His defense attorney was not immediately available for comment.

The threats triggered a series of university alerts on Jan. 11 warning employees and students to stay away from campus. Rongstad was arrested that afternoon after a six-hour standoff at his home. It was later determined he never came to the Twin Cities

According to the charges:

The Sheriff's Office was alerted Jan. 10 to several rambling and vulgar-laden threats posted on a Facebook page for Rongstad's landscape business. The posts included a threat to travel to Minneapolis to shoot U students.

In one post, Rongstad wrote in all capital letters, "Lots of people are going to die." Later, he also made a threatening reference to Iranians.

Along with the U taking steps to keep the campus safe, schools in Chippewa, Yellow Medicine and Renville counties and other colleges in the region went into lockdown.

On the morning of Jan. 11, a SWAT team went to Rongstad's home in the 300 block of Park Avenue. He eventually surrendered shortly after 6:15 p.m.

A search of the home turned up ammunition for a shotgun, but the complaint makes no mention of a firearm being found.

Under questioning, Rongstad told authorities that "he started catching onto government stuff such as mind reading ... and shadow government" beginningin 2013 while he was mayor of the town of about 200 residents.

"His objective with these posts was to get the Secret Service here to speak with him," according to the charges.

Rongstad insisted he never was going to go to the U and kill students.

Other postings threatened 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 subsequently set aside a 15-month prison sentence and ordered Rongstad jailed for 30 days and placed on probation for five years. The threats made to the university violated those 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.

That plea agreement included dismissal of charges stemming from an incident in which he allegedly fired a rifle through the sunroof of his truck.

At the time, according to court documents, Rongstad was "trying to get away from the corpses that were after him."