Watson Man Sentenced to Prison for Online Threats to U of M

(Learfield News/Montevideo, MN) — A Chippewa County man has been sentenced is 21 months in prison for threatening to shoot people on the University of Minnesota campus in January.

Forty-two-year-old Joseph Rongstad of Watson pleaded guilty to two counts of threats of violence this summer.

Investigators said Rongstad made threats to shoot U of M students on social media, saying, “kids will die for real.”

He was arrested by a SWAT team after a standoff at his home. Rongstad is the former mayor of Watson.

He received credit for 224 days already served in jail.