© Photo courtesy Ramsey County sheriff's officeKirill Bartashevitch
The Ramsey County attorney's office charged Kirill Bartashevitch, 51, of St. Paul with two counts of terroristic threats, one against the girl and the other against her mother. Bartashevitch is a Minneapolis Public Schools employee. The complaint gives this account:
Police were called to a school on Jan. 17 after a school social worker received a report from a parent who said she'd been monitoring her son's electronic communications and saw a message to her son. In the message, Bartashevitch's daughter said her father had pointed a rifle at her.
The social worker interviewed the girl. She said it happened Jan. 13 at the family's Hamline-Midway home in the 1700 block of Englewood Avenue, when she and Bartashevitch were arguing about her grades. The teen swore at her father and said she "hated" him, the complaint said.
Bartashevitch grabbed his new AK-47 -- he'd recently bought it because he feared such weapons would soon be banned -- and pointed it at the girl. The girl said her mother jumped between them while Bartashevitch was pointing the gun. Bartashevitch ordered the girl to go to her room, which she did.
The teen "said she wasn't scared because she didn't think that the gun was loaded," the complaint said. "She did say that she was afraid to go home." The officer made
arrangements to place the girl in a shelter.
A Ramsey County child protection worker interviewed the teen's 52-year-old mother, who verified the girl's account. The mother added that Bartashevitch had also pushed the mother to the floor.
The child protection worker also talked to Bartashevitch, who said he'd been involved in a physical confrontation with his wife and daughter. He said the gun wasn't loaded and he'd checked the chamber before he pointed it at them.
Police executed a search warrant at Bartashevitch's home and found 9mm ammunition and two receipts documenting sale of two rifles. One receipt was for Bill's Gun Shop for Jan. 22, and police learned that Bartashevitch sold an AK-47-style rifle to the shop for $150. The other receipt was for Frontiersman Sport Inc. for Jan. 22, and police confirmed Bartashevitch sold a newer AK-47 clone rifle for $375.
Bartashevitch was in court Friday, and bail was set at $20,000.
Olga Samsonova, Bartashevitch's wife, said Friday: "I need to take care of myself and my daughter. My husband's problems are his problems. He made bad choices, so he has to take care of it." She declined to comment further.
Bartashevitch worked as an IT support assistant at Sheridan Arts Magnet School in Minneapolis, but has been placed on a leave of absence pending the outcome of a complaint unrelated to the school district, according to the district. He's worked for the district since 2000 and has no prior complaints on file there
Court records show Bartashevitch was convicted of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, in 2000 and put on probation for one year. Samsonova was listed as the victim.
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