Man Arrested For Threatening Hubbard Broadcasting

Rusty Arnston

A Twin Cities man cited the Maryland newspaper shootings when he made threats against the St. Paul media company where he used to work, authorities said Monday.

According to The Star-Tribune, Rusty Arntson, 36, of Brooklyn Center, was charged Monday in Ramsey County District Court with one count of felony threats of violence.

Arntson once worked for Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. (HBI) in St. Paul, which operates TV station KSTP.

“Arntson said that he made reference to the incident in Maryland as a warning to HBI that if they continued to treat their employees badly one of them may come back to hurt them,” court documents said.

According to the criminal complaint: Arntson was fired from his job at HBI in 2017 after he had a “confrontation with a female coworker who he blamed for causing him to have a previous suspension.” His job at the time was not specified in the complaint.

According to wincities.com, on June 21, 2018, security for the company learned that he had been on company property and “made several disturbing comments” to the employee, including saying that “police had extracted things from his body” during interactions he had with law enforcement, the complaint said. “Arntson said that women were like black widow spiders, but he reassured the male employee by saying, ‘I won’t kill you because you’re a man.'”

Security left Arntson a message on June 25. He returned the call on June 29, the day after five Capital Gazette employees were shot and killed.

Arntson allegedly said he wanted his job back and that HBI needed to change its policies.

“You know what happened yesterday in Maryland,” he said, according to the documents.

Arntson, who has a permit to carry, was arrested and allegedly told police he did not intend to hurt anyone “but was only trying to protect the company from their own malicious behavior,” the complaint said. He told the investigator “he is a Christian and has no plans to hurt anyone because if he were to do so he would burn in hell.”

The investigator noted that Arntson “made several bizarre statements” and Arntson told him “that he is a legally abandoned child under the law and that NATO has been paying his bills,” the complaint said. “Arntson made reference to the Department of Justice and the FBI being involved with (Hubbard Broadcasting) in regards to his dispute with the company over unemployment insurance.”