Attempted armed robbery leads to felony charges

An Owatonna man faces multiple felonies after authorities say he used a stolen gun during an attempted robbery – and fired it twice during the incident.

Hunter Hazen Allen, 21, was arraigned Monday in Steele County District Court, where he was charged with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, first-degree attempted aggravated robbery and receiving stolen property.

He remains in custody in lieu of $75,000 conditional bond and is due back in court Nov. 16.

The case began late Nov. 2, when a caller reported hearing yelling and “loud bangs” coming from a neighboring apartment on Cedar Avenue.

Officers arrived to find fresh blood on the outside steps. An officer then found a 39-year-old man behind the building, bleeding from a head injury.

According to the complaint, the victim said a man – later identified as Allen – had pulled a gun on him and demanded his wallet while the two were inside an apartment. When the victim refused to give Allen his wallet, Allen deliberately fired a shot over the man’s shoulder.

The man was taken by ambulance to Owatonna Hospital, where he was treated and released.

At the Law Enforcement Center, the victim told investigators he and a 31-year-old woman had been out earlier in the evening. She later suggested they pick up Allen from a home on Pine Avenue. The man said he had never met Allen, and after “sitting around” for a while, the man announced he was going to leave.

According to the report, Allen followed the victim to the door, then pointed a gun at him, said it was a .45 caliber, and fired the weapon over the victim’s left shoulder.

The man said he refused to give Allen his wallet, which contained $600 in cash. He allegedly believed the woman had seen the money earlier, and she “might have been in on it.”

After firing the weapon, Allen hit the victim in the head with the gun, the complaint says, and it discharged again.

After the man fell to the floor, Allen reportedly kept the gun pointed at him, tried to punch him in the head, then grabbed a frying pan to continue the attack. The woman got between the two men, telling the alleged victim to give Allen the wallet “and he will go away.”

The victim was able to get to the bathroom and close the door. He believes that’s when Allen left the apartment.

He and the woman then also left the apartment, and she “began trying to hide herself in a neighbor’s yard,” the complaint says. Officers arrived soon after.

As police investigated, a neighbor told them he’d found a bullet in his apartment, which shares a wall with the woman’s apartment.

The neighbor’s apartment had two bullet holes in the shared wall and a hole in the wood trim around a window on another wall – where another spent round was found.

Two days later, detectives went to Allen’s home on Pine Avenue. A woman there initially said Allen wasn’t home, but eventually admitted he was there.

Allen first claimed he was at work during the time of the incident; other employees told police that wasn’t true.

Allen then said he was home with a friend all night. The friend said that wasn’t true, but became nervous when detectives asked if there was a gun in the home.

As they waited for a search warrant, Allen continued to provide “vague alibis,” the complaint says, before detectives eventually found a holstered handgun in a clothes hamper in the basement.

The .45 caliber gun had six rounds in the magazine, none in the chamber.

A roommate allegedly told police that Allen had given him the gun and told him to hide it.

The firearm was identified as being stolen in Owatonna in September.

Court documents say that two men told detectives Allen came to their home early Nov. 3 – within hours of the alleged incident – and told them he’d tried to take someone’s money and shot at them.