MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Twin Cities man is facing multiple felony charges after he allegedly rammed his pickup truck into a Minneapolis fire station Thursday night as firefighters were protecting a woman he was following.
Shawn Coates, 52, of Minneapolis, is charged with two counts of fourth-degree assault, one count of threats of violence, and one misdemeanor count of damage to property, court documents filed in Hennepin County show.
According to a criminal complaint, the woman Coates was following arrived at Minneapolis Fire Station 8 on Blasdell Avenue South around 7 p.m., telling firefighters that Coates was following her in a pickup truck.
When Coates rolled up to the station, a firefighter tried to wave him away, telling him to move on. Coates told the firefighter to “mind his own business,” the complaint states.
After the woman went inside the fire station, Coates pulled up into parking lot. He started spinning his truck’s back tires.
When the firefighter told him to leave for a second time, Coates drove toward the firefighter and tried to hit him, the complaint states. To dodge the truck, the firefighter stepped behind garage door pillar. The truck slammed into the bi-fold garage door, causing an unknown amount of damage.
After Coates drove into the building, other firefighters used an axe to pop his tires. When Coates got out of the truck, he immediately walked over to the fire chief before firefighters brought him to the ground. He allegedly called the firefighters “pieces of s—” and said “I’m coming back for you.”
The firefighters held Coates down until police arrived. While in the squad car, Coates hit his head on the partition and kicked the rear passenger door. When officers told him to stop, he allegedly said that officers would need to “loosen the handcuffs or assault him,” the complaint states.
At the Hennepin County Jail, it took six or seven deputies to hold and detain him. Before Coates was processed, officers reported hearing him screaming through the heavy jail walls.
Coates remains in custody. If convicted of all the felony charges, he faces up to 8 years in prison.
