SD student brings guns, explosives on first day of school www.privateofficer.com
18-year-old Joseph Thomas Hansen of Claire City was arrested early Tuesday morning after authorities got a tip that he was making threats against the school and town.
After Hansen was arrested authorities found several weapons and other materials for making explosives at his home. Sisseton residents are glad he was taken into custody.
“Well I’m glad that our law officers are on the thing and got on it so it was taken care of right away,” Sisseton resident Byron Pederson said.
But, the South Dakota Attorney General says that arrest wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for a tip from the public. The initial tip about the threats came in Monday morning, on the first day of school. That sparked an investigation that involved the Sisseton Police, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, and Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms investigators.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is praising the public for that tip that helped authorities prevent a possibly serious situation.
“Law enforcement feels that we’ve been very proactive to stop a potentially very dangerous situation,” Jackley said.
Jackley says a Sisseton School Resource Officer took the tip about the threats that set off the investigation and led to the arrest, and the discovery of weapons and explosives at Hansen’s home.
“Without that information there would have not been an investigation, there would have not have been an arrest, and we would have not have confiscated the dangerous components as well as the weapons and ammunition,” Jackley said.
And Jackley says parents, students, and the public can take something away from this situation; that even threats shouldn’t be ignored but turned over to investigators.
“This incident highlights the importance that when a student, when parents, when school officials see some potential suspicous activity, or gain some information of a public safety nature, that they go to the next step. That they go to the school resource officer. That they provide that to local law enforcement so that can be followed up to make sure we protect our school children in the communities,” Jackley said.
Hansen was a student at Sisseton High School. He now faces ten counts of having the materials for making a destructive device.
Source keloland.com
