Justin Sutherland of St. Paul pleads guilty to threatening his girlfriend

She said she ran to a neighbor's house to make a phone call and Sutherland walked out of the building with a gun and told her he would shoot her if she came back. As she approached him, the friend continued, Sutherland pointed the gun at her and then hit her in the chest with the gun. She said she raised her hands and said, “Don’t shoot me.”

She said the boyfriend soon arrived and disarmed Sutherland, who yelled at her that he wanted her dead. She described the weapon to police and said he had other firearms in the apartment.

When police searched the apartment, a gun case containing two handguns was discovered on a bed. There appeared to be blood on one of them. Sutherland's hands were bloody when police arrived. Officers also found eight other weapons and ammunition in the house.

The friend said Sutherland had physically and verbally abused her in the past, including when he broke the windshield of her car two days earlier.

Police were at the apartment about 90 minutes earlier when the friend called 911 and said Sutherland was choking her and trying to throw her out of the apartment. She refused to give his name to dispatch and kept disconnecting from 911. Officers spoke to her and she said everything was fine. No arrest was made as a result of the earlier call.