A trifecta in Watson, Minnesota, as standoff captures national attention

Feb. 9—WATSON

— Calls from major news media outlets started before 9 a.m.

It wasn't long before

Chippewa County Sheriff

Derek Olson learned that both the Minnesota governor's office and the president of the United States were paying attention to what was going on in Watson.

To this day, the sheriff has no idea how many schools went into lockdown due to the Jan. 11, 2024, standoff in the small community.

"I can tell you it was a lot further expanding than I expected. I think that is OK," Sheriff Olson told the

Chippewa County Board

of Commissioners on Feb. 6.

He provided the board with a recap of the incident that had generated so much attention.

Joseph Mark Rongstad, 41, is in custody in the Chippewa County Jail on felony charges of ineligible possession of ammunition and threats of violence.

The standoff that led to his arrest ended peacefully. Rongstad surrendered to a SWAT team that had surrounded his home during the bitterly cold day.

Rongstad is alleged to have made posts threatening to harm students at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus as well as threats against local judicial and law enforcement individuals.

Rongstad has had prior mental health struggles known to law enforcement. Concerns that he was on the verge of another episode had led the sheriff to try to connect with him during the day and well into the night before the threats were allegedly made.

The University of Minnesota issued information to its staff and students early in the morning of Jan. 11 when the first threats were posted on social media. The University also alerted media outlets.

The sheriff said the attention came quickly. He believes the first television unit arrived in Watson around 9 a.m. that day.

He didn't expect all the attention that came during the day, but the sheriff said he was familiar with the defendant's ability to garner attention.

"He's demonstrated in the past (that) when he wants to make a splash, he's pretty darn good at it," the sheriff told the commissioners.

While a SWAT unit was being readied to surround Rongstad's house, the sheriff learned that another person in Watson had a gun to his head and was threatening suicide. The man believed that the law enforcement vehicles in town were there in search of him, the sheriff learned from a friend of the man.

The sheriff told the man's friend that it was Joseph Rongstad who was the subject of the law enforcement activities. The friend relayed the message. He reported that the man had put the gun away and it was going to be fine, the sheriff said.

Yet another distraction emerged. As law enforcement created a perimeter around Rongstad's home, a sheriff's deputy in a squad vehicle on the perimeter's edge reported another potential mental health incident.

He was watching a man wearing only a T-shirt in minus 10 degrees on the porch of a house, air-punching an imaginary punching bag while apparently mimicking the famous staircase scene from the "Rocky" movie with Sylvester Stallone.

The play-acting by the individual lasted nearly an hour.

The sheriff told commissioners he did not believe Rongstad was armed or had a bomb when they were able to confirm that he was holed up in his home that morning.

Olson had prior contact with him earlier in the fall and had reason to believe that Rongstad was complying with court orders prohibiting him from possessing firearms.

The sheriff said he decided early that morning to notify local schools of the social media threats attributed to Rongstad. By sheer chance, virtually all of the school superintendents in the state were in the Twin Cities for an event.

Olson said he contacted Montevideo Superintendent Wade McKittrick and informed him of what was occurring. McKittrick immediately relayed the news to other superintendents in a room with him.

The coincidence of having all of the superintendents in one location and able to hear the news immediately probably led to the greater number of school lockdowns than he had anticipated, the sheriff noted.

He said he also checked on the situation at the Ramsey Elementary School in Montevideo. He told commissioners that he saw the concern of parents there; some mothers were reluctant to leave.

On the positive side, he said the mindset of school staff that he reached helped assure him that students were being fully protected.

The media attention to the episode waned when it became clear that no firearms or bombs were involved, according to the sheriff.

While certainly an unusual episode by itself, the Watson standoff is also telling of changes in rural areas. The sheriff pointed out that overall, calls and activity for his department have been remarkably consistent.

In the past, law enforcement offices in northern climates, such as Minnesota, usually see a decline during the winter, but not so much anymore.

Sheriff Olson said he believes there is a sense of insecurity in society today and that there are more mental health struggles. Even strong people are struggling, he said.

He attributes a lot of the insecurity to the fact that people are fed so much violence in the media and overall environment.

As for all that he witnessed on Jan. 11, the sheriff said: "You can't make this up." He is thinking that he should write a story about it.