A Minnesota man pledged to inflict gruesome and deadly acts of violence in retaliation for the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and also made sweeping threats against members of specific ethnicities and nationalities, according to charges filed in the Twin Cities.
John Allan Sandeen, 64, of Mora, Minn., was charged Friday in Hennepin County District Court with four felony counts of threats of violence in connection with a series of troubling emails he sent earlier this month.
Sandeen was arrested near his home town and jailed Wednesday in Ramsey County on stalking and harassment charges also stemming from threats he directed toward a musician performing Beatles tunes on Sept. 7 at a White Bear Lake Church and that church’s music director.
Sandeen remains in the Ramsey County jail in lieu of $10,000 bail ahead of an Oct. 8 court hearing. His attorney was not immediately available Saturday to comment on the allegations.
“These threats are chilling and extremely graphic,” a statement from Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty read, adding that “our community is still reeling” from the June assassinations of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman and shootings that seriously wounded Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman. The alleged gunman, Vance Boelter, faces state and federal stalking and murder charges.
“We will not tolerate threats of politically motivated violence, and will do everything in our power to hold those who make these threats accountable,” Moriarty said.
The cases filed against Sandeen come amid widespread fallout around the country in the wake of Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10 during an event at Utah Valley University. The killing has turned up the volume and temperature even higher in an already politically divided country involving issues of gun violence, free speech among others.
Police were contacted by the music director of a Maple Grove church who said he received a threatening email Monday from someone later determined to be Sandeen. The director, only identified in the charges as P.B., said he believes it came from the same person who saw him perform with others at a church in White Bear Lake earlier in the month.
The email, which said it was from Sandeen, read in part: “I think that you and your cohorts have killed my friend Charlie. For this I hold you and your people responsible. It’s fair game to let the hunted know that they are hunted. You are now advised.”
P.B. was also forwarded several emails sent by Sandeen to J.K., the White Bear Lake church’s music director. These emails from Sandeen, someone J.K. said he has known for decades, included thoughts on liberals and certain ethnic groups being responsible Kirk’s death and made specific threats and references to P.B.
“When I and others take my time and money to hear you and your people play music, I just want to hear the music. I do not want to hear [P.B.’s] political views. … Shut down the politics. I’m not kidding.”
Sandeen apparently was upset after hearing P.B. discuss with a fellow band member how “President Nixon was working with the FBI in an attempt to have John Lennon deported,” the Ramsey County charges read.
More broadly, Sandeen wrote, “All your liberal left leaning people are now targets. You people killed my friend with your rhetoric. Now it is pay back time you better [expletive] hide.”
On Wednesday, officers tracked Sandeen to an airport hangar in Rush City, Minn. He was in a pickup truck and about to leave.
The officers recovered a cell phone and electronic tablets from the pickup. They also seized from the hangar an electronic tablet, three cell phones, a box of shotgun shells, and a plastic bag of ammunition.
Under law enforcement questioning, Sandeen said was probably drunk when he spouted off and said “crazy [expletive].” He went on to complain about musicians giving political views rather than playing songs.