Man Charged After Brainerd Apartment Rampage
BY MN CRIME STAFF
A 40-year-old man is facing felony charges after investigators say he broke into a Brainerd apartment, destroyed property and threatened responding officers.
The incident happened around 9:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, at an apartment building on the North 8th Street block in Brainerd.
Nathaniel Donald Brimson, of Baxter, is charged with second-degree burglary of a dwelling, two counts of threats of violence, first-degree property damage and gross misdemeanor obstruction of legal process with force, according to a criminal complaint filed in Crow Wing County District Court.
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According to the complaint, officers were dispatched after a tenant reported hearing glass breaking and a man yelling inside a neighbor’s apartment. The caller told dispatch she did not know whether the woman who lived in the unit was inside and said she did not believe the man was supposed to be there.
Officers arriving at the building reported hearing a man yelling and loud crashing sounds coming from inside the apartment. Police knocked several times and announced their presence. Investigators say the man inside began shouting profanities, racial slurs and threats, including yelling, “You want to get gangster f***ed up?”
Seconds later, authorities say the apartment door flew open and the man rushed outside while yelling, pushing a storm door outward toward an officer. Police identified the man as Brimson. Investigators say he turned toward the officer, clenched his fists, took a fighting stance and walked toward him. An officer pushed Brimson backward while keeping his handgun aimed at him as another officer tackled Brimson to the ground. Police say Brimson was noncompliant as officers took him into custody and continued yelling profanities.
Investigators say Brimson made additional threats after being handcuffed, including telling officers, “I’m about to knock you the f*** out, b****.” Officers assisted him to his feet and searched him. Police say Brimson claimed he lived at the apartment and said “his girl” would be home soon. When asked who he meant, investigators say he gave the first name of the apartment resident.
Police say Brimson refused to sit in a squad vehicle and officers had to pull him inside to secure him. Investigators say he then looked toward an officer and said, “I will kill you.”
After Brimson was secured, an officer entered the apartment and reported extensive damage throughout the unit. Investigators described the apartment as being in complete disarray with furniture overturned and scattered. A window in the living room was broken and a dining table had been flipped with one of its legs on the floor. Police also reported a broken television screen in the living room, broken dishware in the bathroom, a dresser flipped into a bedroom window causing it to shatter, a shattered mirror in the bedroom and a second television in the bedroom with a broken screen.
Officers did not locate anyone else inside the apartment. The tenant who called police told investigators she heard Brimson yelling, then loud thuds and glass breaking. Another tenant told officers she was friends with the apartment resident and said the resident was moving because of Brimson. The tenant told investigators she and the resident had been trying to get Brimson to leave her alone for the past couple of days but he kept returning. She said Brimson did not live there and had been coming and going, adding that she believed he had entered the apartment on prior occasions.
Investigators later contacted the apartment resident by phone and recorded the conversation. The woman told officers Brimson does not live at her apartment and has never lived there. She said she met Brimson months earlier through Snapchat and allowed him to stay at her apartment for a couple of nights because he was homeless during a stretch of subzero temperatures. She told police they were not in a relationship and said she was scared of him.
According to the complaint, the woman told police she was not at the apartment that night but had stopped there earlier after work and Brimson was inside. She said Brimson began yelling at her so she went back to her car and tried to leave. She told investigators Brimson followed her outside and kicked her vehicle. Police say she later sent images showing what appeared to be a dented fender and told officers the damage was from Brimson kicking the vehicle.
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The woman told police she believed Brimson entered her apartment through a bathroom entry door that she believed had been left unlocked. She also told investigators she received an estimated 300 Snapchat messages after she left, describing them as a mix of derogatory messages and threats. Screenshots reviewed by officers allegedly included messages stating, “die b****,” “I’m going to torture and r*pe all of you,” “U ain’t s*** to me, nothing, I’m going to kill you,” and “I’ll kill you I swear,” along with other profanities and derogatory names. Investigators noted the messages came from an account labeled with a different contact name but displayed a photo of Brimson.
After the call, an officer returned to the apartment and checked the bathroom door, reporting it was unlocked. Investigators also reported finding items believed to belong to Brimson inside the apartment, including a jacket and boots an officer said he had previously seen Brimson wearing during earlier encounters. Police also reported locating a cellphone believed to belong to Brimson that was smashed and no longer had a screen.
Court records show Brimson has multiple prior convictions, including a felony harassment restraining order violation in Morrison County in 2024 tied to a 2023 incident. He was also convicted in 2024 of gross misdemeanor obstructing legal process with force in Morrison County stemming from an April 2023 case involving a report that he was on Walgreen’s property after being served a trespass notice.
Records also show Brimson was convicted of felony threats of violence in Morrison County in 2020. In Crow Wing County, he was convicted in 2023 of misdemeanor disorderly conduct tied to a 2022 case. Morrison County records list multiple misdemeanor trespass convictions in 2021 and 2023, as well as a 2022 case in which a disorderly conduct charge was dismissed and a trespass count resulted in a conviction. Older records show a felony conviction in 2015 involving assault of a peace officer and a felony threats of violence conviction entered in 2018, along with a gross misdemeanor conviction for obstructing legal process with force in that same case.
If convicted in the Brainerd case, Brimson faces up to 10 years in prison on the burglary charge. Each threats of violence count and the first-degree property damage charge carries a maximum sentence of five years. The obstruction charge carries a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail.
