Law enforcement in Chippewa County started efforts to make contact with Joseph Rongstad on Wednesday, Jan. 10, or roughly a full day before he became the focus of a tense standoff in the community of Watson, tension that expanded to include the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota.

Social media posts he made Wednesday, while not containing explicit threats, led law enforcement to suspect that he was on the verge of reverting to past behavior, Chippewa County Sheriff Derek Olson told the West Central Tribune on Friday.

The standoff in Watson, Minn., located about 2-1/2 hours west of Minneapolis, ended peacefully around 4:15 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, when Rongstad, 41, emerged from his home to be taken into custody by the Chippewa County Sheriff’s Office and members of the West Central SWAT Team.

“Pleased with the peaceful resolution, to say the least,” said the sheriff as he discussed the law enforcement response to the threats allegedly posted on social media by Rongstad.

Rongstad is currently in the Chippewa County Jail. He is being held for violating the terms of his probation after a brief court hearing on Friday. Due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, formal charges surrounding the threatening social media posts will not be filed with the Chippewa County District Court until Tuesday, Jan. 16.

Rongstad has a criminal history involving erratic and violent behavior well-known to law enforcement. Incidents include driving a tractor into the town’s Lutheran church, firing a rifle though the sunroof of a vehicle “to stop corpses,” and burglarizing the now former Watson mayor’s home as he and his family slept.

The sheriff said his office contacted community corrections on Wednesday to make contact with Rongstad to check on his state of mind. Rongstad is on probation, providing leverage to contact and check on him. Community corrections was unsuccessful in reaching him.

The Sheriff’s Office began its own efforts to reach him on Wednesday, with help from his family. Sheriff’s officers remained with members of his family into the middle of the night in hopes of reaching Rongstad.

It was shortly after family members left the meeting with law enforcement that Rongstad is alleged to have made the posts that led the University of Minnesota to issue an alert for its Twin Cities campus.

Shortly after the 5 a.m. posting Thursday, the Sheriff’s Office notified the University of its attempt to locate Rongstad and arrest him. The sheriff said his office immediately notified area school districts as well and got word out to a larger area.

At the same time, Sheriff Olson said his office went to work lining up resources to assist with bringing Rongstad into custody.

While it was suspected that he was in his Watson home, phone calls and efforts to reach him there were unsuccessful. The Sheriff’s Office was unable to verify his presence in the home until sometime between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m., Olson said.

By that point, resources were on hand. Residents in some of the neighboring homes were evacuated as SWAT team members and sheriff’s deputies cordoned off the area. The electricity and gas service to the home were disconnected after a social media post by Rongstad stated he had rigged a bomb in the home.

No bomb was discovered when the home was searched after his arrest, but the decision to turn off the gas may have helped bring the standoff to an earlier resolution, according to the sheriff. Rongstad was without heat through the afternoon of a day with single-digit temperatures.

There was on and off contact with Rongstad during the afternoon in hopes of negotiating his peaceful surrender. The sheriff said he has had rapport with him over the years, and hoped he might persuade him to surrender.

The communications made it clear to law enforcement that “he was in for the long haul,” said the sheriff.

Rongstad was the only person in the home. There was nothing to be used in negotiation other than to get him out peacefully, explained the sheriff.

SWAT team members tossed CS gas canisters, more commonly known as tear gas, into the home. Rongstad threw them back out of the windows and moved around in the house to avoid the effects of the gas, according to the sheriff.

The Sheriff’s Office had 11 or 12 deputies on the scene, and extra help at the dispatch center. The local officers were assisted by roughly 30 members of the West Central SWAT Team.

An FBI field agent, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents, Minnesota State Patrol officers, the Minneapolis Bomb Squad, and the Montevideo Fire Department and CCM Health Ambulance were among the entities on scene through the standoff.

The event brought both state and national media attention. It seemed apparent to the sheriff that the attention was what the defendant sought by continuing to make social posts through the course of the standoff.

SWAT team members were beginning to move forward with entering the home when he complied with orders to come out.

After his arrest, the bomb squad went through the home before law officers executed a search warrant to go through the home.

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