Police: Fired Workers Beat Colleague With Rocks, Threatened to Kill Him Unless He Quit in Solidarity

Three Minnesota coworkers who recently split from the same job are accused of turning on a fourth crew member after he declined to leave with them, authorities say.

Juan Jose Erazo Herrera, 26, Wilber Arnulfo Cartagena-Hernandez, 35, and Juan Carlos Alberto-Serrano, 29, have each been charged with assault in connection with the alleged beating of a man staying at the Crookston Inn in Crookston, Minnesota.

Criminal complaints reviewed by Law&Crime say police were called on July 23 by a man who identified himself as the supervisor of a grain-bin construction crew lodging at the hotel. The supervisor told officers that all four men had been part of his crew, but that Alberto-Serrano and Erazo Herrera had been fired. Cartagena-Hernandez then quit after the firings, according to the complaints.

The supervisor also told police that another worker had been taken to the hospital after allegedly being assaulted by the three men.

Investigators returned to the victim’s room at the Crookston Inn, where they said the attack occurred, and found blood spatter on the “mattress, lamp, walls, floor, and nightstand.” In a nearby room, officers located Alberto-Serrano asleep in bed and arrested him. Police said they also recovered a white towel stained with blood and tied into a knot; when officers untied it, they allegedly found four rocks about the size of golf balls inside.

According to police, surveillance footage showed Alberto-Serrano tying a white towel into a knot. The complaint says Cartagena-Hernandez and Erazo Herrera soon joined him before all three men entered the victim’s room.

The three suspects were arrested days after the alleged attack and charged with assault. They remain held at the Polk County Jail and are scheduled to appear in court on July 30.

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