Explosive found near Hastings elementary school: Charges

HASTINGS, Minn. (FOX 9) - A Hastings man is charged with putting an explosive device near an elementary school in 2023, leading authorities to search his home after a person unknowingly found it and thought it was a cherry bomb.

What we know

John Allan Lee, 57, of Hastings has been charged with felony possession of an explosive device.

According to charges, on Feb. 10, 2023, an officer with the Hastings Police Department responded to a report of suspicious activity after someone reported that they had found a "small cherry bomb" wrapped in a handkerchief.

The caller said they had taken the device home after finding it near a telephone pole near an elementary school in Hastings the day before. She told police she thought it was garbage, but then realized it was an explosive, and put it back. However, she "felt wrong" about leaving it there, so she brought it home to ask her husband, charges say. Her husband then told her to call the police.

When police investigated the item, they found it wasn’t a cherry bomb, and the St. Paul Bomb Squad was dispatched to investigate the device - which was 3 to 4 inches in length and 1 to 2 inches in diameter, shaped like a cylinder, taped with black electrical tape and attached to a fuse.

On Aug. 10, 2023, investigators with Hastings police, along with FBI agents, determined the device was a functioning "improvised explosive device" or IED. Authorities also determined that DNA of a man was located on several components, according to charges.

A Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) match came back to Lee.

Search warrant, arrest

On Sept. 12, 2023, authorities from both Hastings and the FBI executed a search warrant for Lee’s home. He was later located at a liquor store nearby, where he was detained by police.

FBI agents told Lee what they were investigating, and that his DNA was found on the IED.

According to charges, Lee initially said he had never set anything near the telephone pole, and that he had never built bombs, explosives or fireworks.

However, when told about the presence of his DNA, on components both inside and outside the IED, he said it "could have been in his possession." He later said, "I probably had it at one time," charges said.

Authorities say that as they continued to question him, Lee eventually said, he tossed something "like a M80 or something like that" near the location, around his birthday – Feb. 9.

Lee is not currently in custody, but due to the serious nature of the allegations, a warrant has been issued for his arrest.