Charges filed against a Minneapolis water department employee who was fired from his job and accused of subsequently making plans to shoot workers at his former workplace have been dismissed.
A judge ruled that the statements Michael Samuel Butler made to a police sergeant while he was hospitalized at St. Paul’s Regions Hospital did not meet the legal threshold to prove he committed the crime of threats of violence, according to a court order filed in the case.
Specifically, the judge found that Butler’s statements were referencing his state of mind regarding previous plans, and that there was no evidence he made the threats while in Ramsey County.
Since Butler was charged by the Ramsey County attorney’s office, the state would need to prove that threats took place within its jurisdiction.
Police were initially sent to the Minneapolis Public Works Water Treatment and Distribution Service after they were told a hospital patient said he had planned to shoot employees at the facility last summer.
Officers searched the area with a dog but didn’t find any guns. A manager told police that Butler didn’t show up for work three days in a row and was fired a few weeks earlier.
A sergeant subsequently interviewed Butler about the reported threats in Regions Hospital Aug. 31.
At the time, Butler reportedly told the sergeant that he was upset with coworkers who made false allegations about him to supervisors, and that his anger escalated after he was fired from his job.
He went on to say that he went on a three day drug-binge after his termination, and said he stashed guns near his Minneapolis workplace during that time with plans to shoot his coworkers, and then himself, according to authorities.
“The statements made by (Butler) were troubling in nature, however … within the context, no person of ordinary care and prudence would strongly and honestly believe that (Butler) made these statements ‘with the purpose to terrorize another,’ the judge’s ruling said.