School went into lockdown Monday after man threatened staff with machete; suspect in custody

A 40-year-old man is facing charges after threatening several staff members of Hmong College Prep Academy with a machete on Monday.

Marcelo Rubio Loredo has been charged with two counts of threats of violence.

According to a criminal complaint, St. Paul officers were called to the school around 11:50 a.m. on Monday on a report of a man standing outside and threatening staff members with a machete.

When officers arrived, staff members were yelling hysterically and pointing at Loredo, whom they said tried to get inside the building. Officers told Loredo to drop the machete, but he replied in Spanish and walked away without dropping the machete.

The complaint states that he ran away when other officers arrived and ignored a Spanish-speaking officer’s commands to stop.

Officers used teargas on Loredo and were able to arrest him and recover the machete.

A staff member told police he saw Loredo press his face against the glass part of a locked door. When the staff member told him to leave, he said Loredo gave him the finger and grabbed a machete from a nearby bike. Court documents state that Loredo then raised the machete over his shoulder in a swinging motion.

The staff member took this as a threat and called for a school lockdown. There were around 200 students in the cafeteria at the time.

A maintenance worker tried to walk Loredo off the property, but Loredo raised the machete in a swinging manner twice, which the worker took as a threat.

Loredo told investigators that he was coming from his job and was looking for something to eat. He added that he had a machete because he was working on a yard.

Court documents note that when officers asked him if he understood that people at the school would be afraid of him waving the machete around, Loredo didn’t answer.