Hearing set for man accused of terrorizing his son and other teens

HUDSON, WIS. - A preliminary hearing has been set for a 43-year-old man accused of threatening to kill his teenage son and terrorizing a group of his son's friends, as he allegedly shot up his former home in a drunken rampage and standoff with police in Hudson last fall.

Daniel C. Christenson, 43, is charged in St. Croix County Circuit Court with seven felonies, including three counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide. On Thursday, Judge Edward Vlack set Christenson's next court appearance for April 4.

Christenson, who now lives in Lakeville, remains free on bond with tight restrictions, including a ban on being in Wisconsin. Neither he nor defense attorney Joe Friedberg commented after the hearing.

Vlack gave Christenson permission to return to the Hudson home -- which is being sold -- for the first time since the incident to retrieve some items.

According to the criminal complaint, the melee began on Oct. 17, a Saturday, after a drunken Christenson returned to the house across from Hudson High School.

Zachary Christenson, 19, was at the house with three teenage friends. The father stated that "he was going to kill Zachary by blowing his head off" and began firing a Glock handgun, the complaint said.

Zachary's friends hid in a basement closet. One of them, a 13-year-old girl, said she heard the father "screaming and raging upstairs" as he fired the gun. "She was basically convinced that they were not going to get out of there alive," the complaint said.

"They indicated that they believe Zach's father was actually shooting at Zach as Zach moved around the interior of the basement," the complaint said. "They indicated that they could still hear Zach pleading on the cell phone with the cops to get into the house and try to help them."

When Daniel Christenson went upstairs, yelling for Zachary to follow him, Zachary broke a window in a basement bedroom. He and his friends escaped uninjured, but Daniel Christenson refused to leave the house. Between 6 p.m. and 1 a.m., police called the house phone and Christenson's cell phone about 70 times, but he didn't respond. Police fired pepper spray into the house and at one point saw Christenson at a window, coughing.

Soon after, he came outside and fired shots at St. Croix County Sheriff's officers Dean Fayerweather and Kristopher Stewart, the complaint added. Fayerweather fired back twice.

Eric Johnson, a St. Croix County sheriff's deputy, then shot Christenson once as he stood near the front door of the house, the complaint said. Christenson, who was struck in the torso, walked slowly with a cane in court Thursday.