Crime & Safety

Greenfield Man Arrested for Threatening Klobuchar, Pelosi

Police say Bradley John Gothman called Plymouth police and threatened to blow up the buildings in which U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi work because he blamed them for taking away his disability benefits.

A Greenfield man has been charged with calling Plymouth police and threatening to blow up the buildings in which U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi work.

Bradley John Gothman, 52, is charged with two felony counts of making terroristic threats, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The threats prompted law enforcement personnel from five agencies, along with multiple K-9 units, to set up a perimeter around Gothman’s home on Jan. 7.

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A Plymouth police employee received a call from Gothman on Jan. 7 in which Gothman accused Klobuchar and Pelosi of taking away his disability benefits, according to the criminal complaint, signed by Hennepin County Sheriff’s Detective Shawn Gullickson.

Gothman told the employee that he was going to kill Klobuchar and Pelosi by blowing up the buildings in which they worked, according to the complaint.

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Police called Gothman back and determined his address, in the 6500 block of Elmwood Drive. During the conversation, Gothman referred to guns, specifically AK-47s and large-caliber rifles, and asked an officer if he knew what a .44-caliber gun could do to a person’s skull, the complaint charges.

While the officer spoke to Gothman on the phone, officers from Plymouth, Corcoran and Medina police departments, along with personnel from the Hennepin County sheriff’s office, West Hennepin Public Safety and numerous K-9 units converged on Gothman’s home and established a perimeter around it.

Authorities were able to convince Gothman to come out of the house, and he was arrested.

A subsequent search of his home turned up two 12-gauge shotguns, a .177-caliber rifle, a .22-caliber rifle, two partially built shotguns and a compound bow and arrows.

Police spoke to Gothman’s landlord, who said he had met with Gothman a month earlier. The man said Gothman had rambled about “all sorts of random things,” including his belief that there were 20 soldiers in the woods behind his house performing a training exercise. Gothman also told the landlord that he would “take care of things,” according to the complaint.

Another tenant told police that Gothman began to act strange in November, rambling on about a variety of topics and not making sense. He told the woman that he wanted to kill his roommate or his family members, including a cousin who he said works for the Plymouth Police Department.

Gothman remains in the Hennepin County Jail on a $100,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled Feb. 5 in Hennepin County District Court.


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