Rushford man charged with seven felonies following June 12 incident

Jun. 15—PRESTON — A Rushford man is facing seven felony charges after he allegedly violated a restraining order late last week.

Ibraheem Farah Hamza Khalifa, 35, is charged in Fillmore County District Court with firearm violation-felon convicted of a crime of violence, possession of ammunition/any firearm-conviction or adjudicated delinquent for a crime of violence, second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, violate a restraining order-within 10 years or two or more priors, violate a restraining order-while possessing a dangerous weapon, obstruct the legal process and fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle. All are felony charges.

He is also charged with gross misdemeanor possession of ammunition/any firearm-previous felony conviction, violation of a restraining order and obstructing the legal process as well as a misdemeanor careless driving charge.

He made his first appearance in front of Judge Matthew J. Opat on Tuesday morning when Opat set unconditional bail at $100,000 and conditional bail at $50,000.

Khalifa is being held at the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center. His next court appearance is scheduled for June 21.

On June 12, a Rushford police officer received a report of a restraining order violation involving Khalifa in the 600 block of High Street North. Khalifa is prohibited from being within 500 feet of a residence and a person in that block. A Fillmore County Sheriff's deputy also was called to respond to the address.

As the deputy was en-route, the Rushford officer relayed that Khalifa "fled the scene after he was told he was under arrest, and drove away," the criminal complaint states. The Rushford officer, identified in the criminal complaint as Darin Daveau, was following Khalifa's vehicle but was not in pursuit of it. The officer followed as Khalifa was driving "erratic" in the city before heading out of Rushford and ultimately coming to stop on Airport Road, where he got out of his vehicle.

"Daveau reported that Khalifa took a gun from the vehicle and had pointed it at his own head. Daveau fired two shots at Khalifa after Khalifa pointed his gun at Daveau," the complaint reads. Khalifa was not hit with any of the rounds. Khalifa then poured gas on his vehicle and started it on fire."

Deputy Leif Erickson arrived and parked south Khalifa's vehicle. Erickson used binoculars and reportedly saw Khalifa holding some type of long gun.

"At one point, Khalifa looked in Erickson's direction and pointed the gun at Erickson for a few seconds, then put the gun down and turned back around," the complaint states." Khalifa wandered back and forth around the burning vehicle and at times twirled the gun in his hands."

Houston County Sheriff's Deputy Lt. Tracie Erickson, who has had previous contact with Khalifa, called his cell phone and talked to him for a while. Khalifa reportedly set down the gun and walked north, out of Erickson's sight. A few minutes later, Khalifa was taken into custody.

Khalifa was on supervised probation at the time of the incident for a 2018 Fillmore County conviction for making terrorist threats.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was called to assist in the investigation of the incident.