WILLMAR -- A 17-year-old Willmar boy was found guilty Wednesday of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for an April 23 altercation near downtown Willmar.
During a court trial presided over by Judge Donald M. Spilseth, Francisco R. Vallejo Jr. was also found guilty of misdemeanor damage to property. He will be sentenced Aug. 29.
Felony matters against 16- and 17-year-olds are public record.
The charges were filed after Willmar police were called around 3 p.m. April 23 to the Willmar Public Library on a report that someone pulled a knife on a group waiting in a vehicle at a stop sign and then ran into the library.
One of the people in the vehicle provided a description of the individual, who was identified as Vallejo as he left a restroom with a group of boys. When an officer asked Vallejo and another boy what happened, they said the guy in the vehicle yelled at them and that nothing happened.
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A woman in the vehicle told officers she had stopped at Sixth Street and Trott Avenue Southwest when two males entered the crosswalk in front of them. She said Vallejo then made an obscene hand gesture.
A male accompanying the woman in the vehicle yelled at Vallejo and questioned him because there were children in the vehicle.
Vallejo came to the driver's window, pulled a pocket knife and attempted to reach through the partially open window, according to the complaint. The driver attempted to close the window but Vallejo continued to jab at it in an attempt to break it. He pounded on the vehicle's windows and yelled at the man to come out and fight.
The driver told officers she couldn't move the vehicle as other motorists were crossing the intersection. When questioned, the boy accompanying Vallejo denied that Vallejo had made a gesture or pulled a knife.
Officers searched the library and questioned other juveniles. No knife was recovered.
