Man Charged in Connection With Lockdown at Dakota Co. Building

An Inver Grove Heights man has been charged with terroristic threats for his alleged role in the lockdown of a Dakota County building Thursday morning.

According to a criminal complaint, 53-year-old Terry Lee Debates allegedly told both a social worker and staff at the trailer court where he lived that if he was unable to obtain financial assistance from the county to pay his rent, he would get into a confrontation with police and make them kill him.

Debates also said he'd have a toy gun with him, according to the complaint.

Approximately 40 police officers from multiple agencies searched the Northern Service Center in West St. Paul after the building was placed on lockdown around 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Authorities located Debates in a third floor office about an hour later. He was arrested without incident. No one was injured.

Debates made his first court appearance Friday and was released without bail to a crisis center, according to the Dakota County Attorney's Office.