Men accused of threatening student with meat saw

Published 10:10 am Thursday, September 17, 2015

WINONA — Two Winona men are accused of holding a college student captive in a warehouse and threatening him with a meat saw.

Thirty-four-year-old Abdirhahman Samatar and 45-year-old John Demaske are charged with false imprisonment, assault with a dangerous weapon and terroristic threats.

The Winona Daily News reports the 19-year-old student told police he got lost after a party Saturday night, and two men he didn’t know took him to the warehouse. There, the student says, the men accused him of stealing from them and ordered him to take off his clothes.

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The student said his captors turned on a band saw. The student eventually fled naked down the street.

Demaske tells the Star Tribune the student was in his building and was not “picked off” the road, as the student told police.