Charges: 70-Year-Old Woman Was Drinking Tequila, Holding Fake Gun While Hanging Off I-94 Overpass

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 70-year-old Minneapolis woman allegedly threatened a state trooper with a fake gun made of duct tape and tinfoil before climbing onto a bridge over an interstate with a bottle of tequila in hand.

Jean Hansen is charged with threats of violence, fleeing a peace officer and two counts of DWI, court documents filed in Ramsey County show.

A criminal complaint states the trooper began following Hansen's vehicle Saturday night when she was driving erratically near Concordia and Snelling avenues in St. Paul. Hansen stopped in a closed traffic lane, exited her vehicle and approached the trooper's squad car.

"Hey officer, I am trying to find my way out of here," she allegedly told the trooper, who was aware of an active warrant for Hansen's arrest.

The trooper asked Hansen to sit in the squad car. She refused and tried to get back into her own vehicle, at which point the trooper tried to pull her out of the car.

The complaint states Hansen grabbed something that looked like a gun and pointed it at the trooper, who retreated to the squad car. Hansen sped away from the scene in her vehicle.

The car was later found nearby. Hansen was found hanging on the fence of the Pascal Street bridge over Interstate 94, "drinking from a bottle of tequila and grabbing at the silver gun-shaped object in her waistband," the complaint states.

Authorities eventually got Hansen off the bridge. Part of I-94 was closed during the incident.

According to the complaint, officers recovered a replica handgun, knife and "another foil and duct tape object."

Hansen allegedly showed signs of impairment, and admitted to taking at least six diazepam pills, for which she had a prescription, before drinking tequila.

The complaint states she told authorities she thought the trooper who stopped her was a threat to the public, which is why she grabbed her fake gun.

Hansen was committed as a mentally ill person earlier this year following an assault charge, the complaint states, and was on a provisional discharge during this incident.