The arrest last week of a Sisseton teen and subsequent release of information that led to that arrest should leave every South Dakotan with a sick feeling in the pit of their stomach.
Very disturbing news has been released about exactly what it was that Joseph Hansen wanted to accomplish at 18 years of age. He would have been a senior at Sisseton High School this year.
Hansen was arrested after his co-workers at a Sisseton day care became concerned about some of the statements he had made and went to authorities.
These people averted what could have been a massacre of innocents in a small South Dakota town.
According to news reports on Tuesday, the documents released by authorities show just how ready this young man was to creating havoc in Sisseton. An inventory list of what was found in Hansen’s room at home shows that dozens of pipes, caps, ammunition, and fireworks were found. Authorities found several do-it-yourself manuals for making explosives including the ‘Anarchist’s Cookbook.’
A loaded shotgun and sawed-off shotgun were also discovered. Investigators were told by school officials that that Hansen often wore a trench coat, and had been caught looking up articles about the Columbine massacre on school computers. Hansen also admitted to writing a paper about Columbine.
That is not the only evidence that was found that pointed to the fact that this young man was a very disturbed person.
He had a laundry list of goals that would make him the ‘world’s most infamous sociopath.’
He had a list of 30 women, who he wanted to kidnap, torture and rape. He went into details on how he would kill them with the bowie knife found in the house under the cushions in the couch.
There was also a list that included blowing up a day care, fire bombing houses, torturing victims for years before burning them to death, killing cops, and lastly blowing up Sisseton High School and executing the survivors.
He was planning this attack carefully and with details. A diagram of Sisseton High School with notes about the school’s lockdown procedures, and which law enforcement officers would respond to a shooting were also among the evidence found in his room..
These are extremely disturbing details. We can all thank the people who were brave enough to get involved and stepped forward with this information. They may have saved countless lives.
The question that needs to be asked is how this young man had all of this in his room at his parent’s home and they had no clue!
How can a parent not know their child? Did they not have a clue there was something just a bit off about their son?
It is the sign of a true psychopath that they fool the people around them, but parents should see some of the signs that their child is not normal.
How can someone have all of that in one room and not have a parent know it is there? One can believe that children deserve some privacy in their rooms, but parents still should be in those rooms.
We have obviously learned something from the Columbine tragedy. The people that Hansen worked with felt disturbed enough to contact authorities.
But have parents not learned enough?
That young man had to have money to buy the explosives and ammunition. He worked in a daycare. Did he earn enough to purchase a sawed-off shotgun and explosives?
The bowie knife he said he would use to kill the women he kidnapped was found between the cushions on a couch.
Not very well hidden.
We need to wake up and realize that children deserve privacy, but we are still the adults, the parents.
It is up to adults to be responsible about what happens in their home.
––Katie Zerr
