What started simply as a smelly prank that an Iron Range teenager pulled on his sister took a dangerous turn and led to criminal charges being filed against the young man Tuesday in St. Louis County District Court in Duluth.
Jake Lee Johnson, 18, of Gilbert was charged with three counts of second-degree assault and three counts of terroristic threats for allegedly pointing a 12-gauge shotgun at his 20-year-old sister, a 17-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy in the parking lot of the Super America gas station in Cotton about 10:45 p.m. Saturday.
According to the criminal complaint, Johnson brought a dead skunk to the station and placed it on his sister's vehicle. Either the sister or one of her friends returned the favor by throwing the skunk at Johnson's truck.
That apparently angered Johnson, who witnesses said either pumped or cocked the shotgun and aimed it at the heads of the three other people.
He then placed the shotgun back into his vehicle. He sat in the vehicle for a time and got out and began talking to people as if nothing had happened, the complaint alleges.
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Officers responding to the scene took the matter seriously from the start. People in the parking lot were ordered to lay on the ground until it could be determined whether anyone was carrying a firearm. Johnson was located and the weapon was in his vehicle.
The defendant told a St. Louis County Sheriff's Office investigator that he just wanted to scare everybody with the gun, but that he had no intention of hurting anyone. He said the weapon was unloaded, but he had shells for the shotgun in the glove box of his vehicle.
The deputy who interviewed Johnson said the teenager seemed remorseful for what he had done.
Johnson was being held in the St. Louis County Jail on $50,000 bail as requested by the St. Louis County Attorney's Office. Judge Sally Tarnowski ordered Johnson to have no contact with the alleged victims. His next court date is set for April 8.
