Man accused of threatening daughter with assault rifle
When a St. Paul, Minn., man was annoyed that his teenage daughter had failed to get straight A’s in school, he made his displeasure known by threatening her with an AK-47, officials said Friday.
Kirill Bartashevitch, 51, was arraigned in Ramsey County District Court on two felony counts of terroristic threats, a court spokeswoman said Friday. He is being held pending the posting of a $20,000 bail-bond.
According to St. Paul police spokesman Sgt. Paul Paulos, Bartashevitch threatened the 15-year-old girl because she received two B’s on her report card rather than straight A’s. It was not known which subjects were the problem, Paulos said.
Bartashevitch argued with the girl about the grades during the afternoon on Jan. 17 at their house, Paulos said.
“The argument escalated and she told her father that she hated him,” Paulos told the Los Angeles Times. “The dad grabbed an AK-47 and pointed it at her.”
The mother got involved and told the girl to head to her room, Paulos said.
Four days later, the girl told a counselor at St. Paul Central High School about the incident. The counselor contacted authorities, who investigated and arrested Bartashevitch on Thursday, Paulos said.
The AK-47, a popular assault rifle, was legally purchased, Paulos said.
Bartashevitch purchased the weapon because he was afraid that such weapons would be banned, local news reports said.
President Obama has proposed renewing a ban on assault rifles as part of a package of proposals to limit gun violence in the wake of the Dec. 14 attack on the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
Adam Lanza, 20, invaded the school and killed 20 children and adults with an assault rifle. He began his rampage by killing his mother in the house they shared and ended it by killing himself in the school.
A ban on assault rifles has been introduced in Congress, but it is being opposed by conservatives.
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