Teen sentenced to probation, community service for Target incident

WILLMAR - Omar Yanez Jr., 17, of Willmar, was sentenced Monday to six months of probation and 56 hours of community work service on a felony charge of terroristic threats and a misdemeanor charge of fifth-degree assault for threatening a store employee Jan. 23 at the Willmar Target store.
Yanez was also ordered to follow the recommendations of a chemical use assessment, to write an apology letter and ordered not to use or possess firearms, dangerous weapons, drugs or alcohol as part of his disposition handed down by District Judge Michael Thompson in Kandiyohi County District Court.
Felony charges against 16- and 17-year-old juvenile defendants are public record.
According to the petition, Willmar police were notified around 8:10 p.m. Jan. 23 that there was a man with a knife making threats at the Target store and that the man had fled in a sport utility vehicle. One officer pursued the vehicle while another officer went to the store, where the employee reported that a Latino man, with tattoos on his face, hands and wrists, was in the electronics department attempting to use a knife to cut the wire holding a cell phone to the display counter.
The man, who was later identified as Yanez, turned to the employee, held up a knife and threatened to hurt the employee if the employee kept following Yanez. Yanez left the department and the employee called for law enforcement. The employee said that Yanez displayed the knife and threatened him twice more, once inside the store and again as Yanez walked into the store’s parking lot.
Officers reviewed the surveillance video of the incident and a gang enforcement officer recognized Yanez from the footage. Yanez was later located at the Lakeview Inn and claimed he had a knife, but that he did not have it with him at Target because he had received it from another individual when he arrived at the motel. He was then arrested and taken to the Prairie Lakes Youth Program.