A North Dakota man has been charged after allegedly sending threatening emails to a federal prosecutor, in which he mentioned the Minnesota lawmaker shootings.
According to the federal criminal complaint, Charles Dalzell, 46, allegedly sent an email on Sunday evening through an obscure email address to a “J.P.” of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota. The email, which identified Dalzell as the sender, referred to the deadly shootings of former Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband.
“Now I’m going to be honest with you I don’t want this situation to end up like Minnesota over the weekend, do you,” the email said, according to the complaint. “I’m trying to get all of you to actually follow the law, not ignore me, not lie to me, not mislead me and purposely waist [sic] my time I don’t have.”
“That is what you all have done and this makes me wonder if these bad situations are really what you want or do you hope that I flip out and end up dead by a police officer?” the email added, the complaint states.
The Sunday email said that Dalzell was allegedly owed money after a court ruling in his favor. He said he raised concerns to federally elected public officials about getting the money, but those complaints were ignored.
The complaint noted that Dalzell indicated two officers told him the public officials would not aid him in his efforts, and he was told he was close to going to jail.
“Dalzell blamed J.P., among others, for lying to him,” the complaint said.
In the email, Dalzell also allegedly wrote that he was “Just sitting here wondering what a law maker and a representative were shot and one dead over in Minnesota and one thing comes to mind, something like that doesn’t fall out of the sky now does it … I’m most certainly not making threats but when law makers make laws and the state doesn’t follow the laws they created it would probably piss some people off right.”
“I don’t know the specifics in this Minnesota case, but a representative and a lawmaker were shot and one of them is dead and all of you mentioned above are basically avoiding your responsibility and that is creating some bad situations,” the email said.
“I’m done with you ignoring me, I’m done with the threats of jail and charges … this had god dam better get fixed Monday morning which is tomorrow because I want to avoid anymore problems and don’t want North Dakota to end up like Minnesota and no that is not a threat [J.P.] it’s a fact and a statement,” the email added, according the complaint.
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Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were fatally shot in their suburban Minnesota home Sunday. The shooting suspect, who is now in custody, additionally opened fire upon state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, and went to the homes of other state politicians.
The criminal complaint noted that the same email address had been investigated for an email threat against the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota in 2024.