South Korean Detained for 2012 Hackettstown Shooting Threats

The 15-month investigation that followed a March 2012 Hackettstown School District lockdown has led to the detainment of a South Korean national, Dae Woong Lee, 19.

Lee is alleged to have phoned into the Warren County 911 Center at 9:45 a.m. March 12, saying he was perched outside of the high school with an AK-47 ready to shoot students who left, and one female student in particular, authorities said at a press conference Tuesday.

Threats Delivered

He used the alias of “Kevin McGowan” when he phoned in, and is also believed to have called himself Robert Gould at some point. Sounding distraught and aggressive on the phone, law enforcement officials took no chances with the threat.

“The call came in on a Voiceover IP through the computer,” said Scott Danielson, the Supervising Telecommunicator/Training Officer for the Communications Center. “In instances like this, the phone numbers don’t always show up, but if they do, they’re masked.”

Bennett Rymon, the dispatcher at Warren County Department of Public Safety, then called the number back on the information they had received, and spoke to the young man for about an hour.

“It was an interesting phone call,” said Rymon. “He talked about rap songs, his girlfriend that just broke up with him, how he was broken hearted, and just said he wanted to shoot kids. His tone was aggressive and his English was fair, with an accent.”

From there, the 911 Center passed along their information to relevant investigators, and the New Jersey State Police worked tirelessly to trace the call.

After the first threats, the dispatch phoned into the school, which went into a lockdown procedure, keeping 955 students under lock-and-key for about three hours.

“Students in grades nine through 12 were all on immediate lockdown,” said Hackettstown High School Vice Principal Roy Huchel. “In that situation, the adrenaline just keeps pumping. It only took about 20 seconds to a half-minute after the call before we were in lockdown.”

The Hackettstown Police Department, which immediately responded to the threat, enlisted the support of further agencies due to the high-tech nature of the incident. 

On that day, the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office, the Warren County Tactical Response Team, New Jersey State Police, Independence Township Police Department and Mansfield Township Police Department all worked to ensure the safety of those on lockdown inside the Hackettstown schools.

SWAT teams were out, automatic weapons touted, searching for a suspect who was supposed to have been located in the woods outside of the school.

Schools in surrounding towns were also put on notice and potential lockdown upon hearing the news.

After the approximate three-hour lockdown, officials determined that the area was safe and that the students could return home.

Locating Lee

“The law enforcement response at the schools that day was just the beginning of a very man-power intensive, lengthy investigation into this threat against children in our community,” said Warren County Prosecutor Richard Burke.

“Recognizing that it required computer and technical knowledge, the Prosecutor’s Office sought assistance from the New Jersey State Police’s Electronic Surveillance Unit and the Attorney General’s Office — Division of Criminal Justice Electronic Surveillance Unit.”

Moving forward, agents followed up on leads inside and outside of New Jersey including in Wisconsin and Easton, Pa.

As the search heated up, MAGLOCEN (Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network) was also enlisted for support, along with federal agencies such as the FBI, U.S. Marshall Service, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the United States Attorneys Office.

Utilizing the combined effort, it became known that a suspect was located outside of the United States, in South Korea. Using its contacts in South Korea, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was able to assist the other agencies in acting as a conduit for dialogue.

“Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) received a request from the prosecutor’s office,” said Peter Fox, Deputy Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations Newark. “HSI was responsible for dialogue with the foreign law office. Using the attaché office in Seoul, we provided information that would assist in identifying Mr. Lee.”

On how the suspect was treated, Fox said, “Terrorism by nature indicates fear – clearly with the response seen here, with the lockdown and armed police walking through the streets, you don’t need an (explicit) act to indicate fear…”

Lee was interviewed by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in January 2013, and then it was reported by HSI Seoul Special Agents that he was detained on June 3.

He was charged with a violation of Korean Criminal Act, Article 314-1, which is the ‘obstruction of business,’ and faces up to five years of imprisonment and a fine up to 15,000,000 Korean Won, which is equivalent to about $15,000, according to Burke.

Lee, who is currently not in prison, is serving in the South Korean Military and is believed to not have been in the service at the time of the crime. There are no plans to extradite him to the United States at this time, according to Burke, because of high costs associated with the operation.

'Unique Crime'

Though much of the investigation remains classified, investigators revealed that Lee accessed the Hackettstown School district using an application for a cellphone from information he obtained on an online chat room.

He is also believed to have come into contact with the Hackettstown female student whom he threatened on that same chat room.

There are no indications as to why he chose Hackettstown specifically for the threats, and also no evidence to suggest he has done something similar in the past. 

“To me, this was a unique crime,” said Burke. “I’ve only been here for a year and a half and wasn’t the prosecutor at the time of the threats, but I’m happy we had the technical assistance to do all of this.”

 “We cannot tolerate this kind of conduct in our society and Warren County,” he added. “It’s important to be diligent in this process. We can’t have schools and businesses in lockdown, especially because of injuries that may result in responding. So if you’re out there thinking about doing something similar to this, think twice.”