Larry Raduenz Jr. Charged In Hospital-Wide Oxygen Shutoff At North Memorial Health
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 39-year-old Robbinsdale man, accused of cutting off the oxygen supply at a major Twin Cities hospital late last year, now faces criminal charges.
Larry Raduenz Jr. was formally charged in Hennepin County with one felony count of first-degree damage to property in connection to the Dec. 27, 2019 incident.
Investigators say Raduenz scaled a fence to get to the oxygen tanks at North Memorial Health hospital in Robbinsdale -- a move that could have been deadly for the patients inside.
Authorities say broke metal clasps and zip ties, and shut off the oxygen to the entire hospital.
An engineer called to check out the damage said if it had taken much longer to fix, the oxygen would have depleted and could have caused injury or death to multiple patients, the complaint said.
North Memorial Health says patients were not hurt, but it's not the first time Raduenz has tampered with hospital property. According to the Hennepin County search warrant, Raduenz was inside the hospital in the month leading up to the incident, unplugging computers and televisions.
Surveillance video helped identify Raduenz. He was arrested at a shelter in St. Paul on Feb. 5.
According to the complaint, Raduenz was interviewed by police and admitted to being angry with the hospital and frequenting the premises. After initially stating that he did not tamper with the oxygen tank, he later stated that he may have done it.
Raduenz has been convicted for similar behavior. On Sept. 17, 2019, he was convicted for damage to property for cutting a cable from a gas meter to the information sending device in St. Cloud. That incident occurred in October 2018.
If convicted, he faces up five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.