A 19-year-old Morris man is facing felony charges after prosecutors say he pulled up beside a stranded driver, pointed a loaded handgun at his head, and asked, “Do you want to die today?” The man backed away with his hands raised, according to the criminal complaint, and the confrontation ended with the teen allegedly fighting officers who came to search his home.
Jackson James Taylor was charged with two felony counts of threats of violence and felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, according to the complaint as summarized by MN Crime. He also faces gross-misdemeanor counts of carrying a pistol without a permit in public, possessing a firearm as an unlawful user of a controlled substance, fourth-degree assault of a peace officer, and obstructing legal process with force, the outlet reports. The complaint was filed Nov. 3.
A Roadside Wait Turns Into a Threat
The man was standing by a disabled vehicle near East 7th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Morris when a blue two-door sedan pulled up beside him, according to the complaint. The driver reached across a female passenger and pointed a handgun at the man’s head, telling him, “I’ll actually kill you right here today,” the complaint states. The man put his hands in the air and backed away — a sequence that security video reportedly captured as well, with the footage showing the sedan arrive at about 1:57 p.m. on Nov. 1.
Separately, Yahoo’s republication of a Bring Me The News report says the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office placed the incident at around 2:15 p.m. at the same intersection, where the victim was standing near his broken-down vehicle. That account, carried by Yahoo News, confirms that police took the 19-year-old into custody on assault charges.
Tracing the Car, Then a Fight With Officers
Investigators traced the sedan through its license plate and obtained a search warrant for the vehicle and its owner’s home, per the complaint. The outlet’s report notes that the suspect’s vehicle was found a short time later at a home on East 8th Street, with a loaded handgun inside — which the complaint identifies as a Glock 17 9mm pistol found in the car’s center console.
When officers arrived to serve the warrant, a man matching Taylor’s description allegedly walked away from them. The complaint says officers ordered him to stop, but he became extremely combative, pulled away, and kicked and tried to strike the officers. He also allegedly threatened to spit on and bite officers and said he would kill them, and after being handcuffed, reached out for a sergeant’s gun, according to the complaint summarized by the publication.
Admissions and Denials in the Complaint
The man was identified as Taylor, who denied pointing a gun at anyone but admitted the pistol was his and that he had no permit to carry it, the complaint states. He reportedly told officers he had used methamphetamine almost daily while working, though he said he had not used the drug since around July.
The case echoes another recent Minnesota prosecution involving a gun pointed at strangers in a vehicle. Earlier this year, an ICE officer, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., was charged with two felony counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon over allegations he pointed a gun at two people in a car on Highway 62 near I-35W in Minneapolis in February, according to the Minnesota Reformer. That case is unrelated to the Morris incident but reflects a similar charge under state law.
Minnesota’s threats-of-violence statute, cited in Taylor’s charges, addresses anyone who threatens, directly or indirectly, to commit a crime of violence with the purpose to terrorize another person, according to the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. No hearing date, plea, or further case status has been reported.
