Burnsville Man Charged with Threatening Woman with Knife

A Burnsville man has been charged with making terroristic threats after police say he threatened a woman with a 9-inch knife.

Brian James Ficaro, 19, faces a felony charge of making terroristic threats, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Ficaro was arrested last week and remained in the Dakota County Jail Monday on a $25,000 bond. An omnibus hearing is scheduled for Sept. 12 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

According to the criminal complaint, Ficaro’s victim came to the Burnsville police station Aug. 16 and reported that Ficaro had assaulted her.

The victim told police that she and Ficaro were arguing because of her jealousy, and he began to call her “inappropriate names.” She said he took her phone, took out the memory card and put the phone in his pocket, then told her he wanted out of the relationship and began “destroying the apartment,” according to the complaint.

Ficaro went into the bedroom and dumped out all the dresser drawers, the victim told police, then left the bedroom and went into the kitchen.

Ficaro told the victim “You’re next” as he dug through kitchen drawers for something, the victim said. He came back into the bedroom with a 9-inch chopping knife, cornered the victim in the closet and held the knife over her with the blade pointed down, the complaint says.

After a few seconds, Ficaro put the knife down and began to laugh, the victim said. He said, “You really thought I would do that to you? See, you don’t trust me. See what you make me do?”, according to the complaint.

The victim said Ficaro began to cry about the deaths of his parents, and threatened to kill himself. She said he started to cut his wrist with the knife and also tried to cut the palm of his hand with a pair of scissors.

The victim said she was able to get the knife and scissors away from Ficaro. She said that although she feared for her life, she couldn’t call for help because Ficaro had taken her phone.

Ficaro told police that he had cut his wrist unintentionally by sliding his hand across the countertop over some papers that had a knife hidden beneath them, the complaint says. He admitted that he had argued with the victim and had thrown things around the apartment.