A Minnesota lobbyist accused of sending text messages threatening to shoot people at the state Capitol now faces a felony charge.

Jonathan Michael Bohn, 41, of Woodbury, has been charged with threats of violence after authorities say he sent a string of “threatening and disparaging” messages to an acquaintance, the Carver County Attorney’s Office announced Friday.

Bohn, a lobbyist with the Inter Faculty Organization, a union that represents faculty at Minnesota state universities, said he had bought “500 bullets” and was “excited to have my gun at the capitol and blow somebody’s (expletive) face off,” prosecutors allege.

Bohn’s attorney said his client was angry and grieving following the recent shootings of two state lawmakers and had no intention of harming anyone.The charge comes less than a week after a shooting spree that took the lives of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and her husband, Mark, and injured Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, and his wife, Yvette.

Bohn’s threats did not mention any specific state lawmaker, according to prosecutors. His attorney reiterated that point.

“There was no intent of doing any specific harm to a specific person or a specific group of people,” said Bohn’s attorney John Lesch, a former Democratic-Farmer-Labor state representative from St. Paul. “That said, Mr. Bohn is extremely contrite and embarrassed and wants to offer his dearest apologies for putting people in this situation in the midst of their grief.”

Text messages

Bohn sent the messages to an individual who was at a restaurant in Waconia on Wednesday, according to the criminal complaint.

“The victim felt threatened, and the text messages were upsetting to him … he left the restaurant early so he could go home and lock his door and … he had difficulty sleeping that night,” Carver County prosecutors said in the news release.

Lesch said the person was a family friend with whom Bohn had engaged in “heated political disagreements over the years.” The person was not involved in politics at the state Capitol, to Lesch’s knowledge.

In a statement issued via his lawyer, Bohn apologized for the texts and said his words came from “pain, not from intent.”

“In the midst of this immense grief, I sent a series of heated and emotional texts to a friend of nearly thirteen years — someone with whom I’ve shared countless candid and passionate political conversations,” the statement said. “In that moment of anguish, I used language that I deeply regret.”

The messages containing the alleged threats came after a “falling out … over political differences,” the Carver County Attorney’s Office said in a news release on the charge.

After learning of the matter, law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Bohn’s Woodbury home and found an unloaded firearm in a locked case in his garage, according to the complaint. Police questioned Bohn and then took him into custody.

Bohn was released from the Carver County Jail in Chaska on Friday. At his bail hearing Friday, Judge Eric Braaten set Bohn’s bond at $1 million or $100,000 with conditions, ordered no contact with the alleged victim and ordered him to stay at least half a mile away from the Minnesota Capitol.

Under Minnesota law, the maximum sentence for a threats of violence conviction is five years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both.

Administrative leave

In a statement, the Inter Faculty Organization said it had placed Bohn on administrative leave.

“The Inter Faculty Organization (IFO) condemns political violence and threats of violence in any form,” union president Jenna Chernega said in a statement. “Such acts are unacceptable and stand in direct opposition to the values that guide our work: civil discourse, mutual respect, and advocacy rooted in integrity.”

Rep. Jim Nash, a Waconia Republican, reported the threatening texts to law enforcement on Wednesday.

Nash notified the House sergeant at arms, State Patrol and Carver County Sheriff’s Office of a “personal text message to a constituent that was threatening in nature,” the Minnesota House GOP Caucus said in a news release.

“The threat was not aimed at any particular lawmaker but the message did include a threat of violence at the Capitol,” House Republicans said. The news release didn’t identify the suspect but said authorities questioned and arrested the person on Wednesday.

Republicans said the House sergeant at arms is not aware of any further threats to the Legislature or staff.

Last Saturday’s shootings have led to a heightened level of caution among state leaders.

The alleged assassin visited the homes of two additional DFL lawmakers that same night and had notebooks naming dozens more targets, all Democrats, including those supporting abortion rights, federal prosecutors said this week.

Lawmakers’ home addresses have already been removed from the Minnesota Legislature’s website, and the Capitol saw a larger security presence than usual this week.

Elected officials have again called for new security measures at the state Capitol, such as entry checkpoints with metal detectors and X-ray machines.

The Legislature has debated security changes for years with little progress.