SUNDAY—Local boy Alexander “Zander” Jones has been making waves both within our community and beyond as numerous controversial videos of him have surfaced online. Once thought of as a quiet, mild-mannered teenager by his friends and family, he has since been shown voicing strong opinions and spilling secrets so vile that they have left many people who know him speechless.
“I don’t know where I went wrong!” exclaims his mother, Maria, recounting the obscenities she witnessed her son commit. “Has he been like this for years? Hiding his true self from us? Hiding from God?” Maria became inconsolable and was unable to provide further comment.
The content of these videos is, in some cases, deeply disturbing. Jones has been shown to harbor psychopathic tendencies, including holding demeaning views of his parents and making unspecified threats of violence. His language is also incredibly crass, having shown hostility to nearly all groups of people.
“It’s incredibly frightening to see this stuff being spread around by a kid,” says police chief Melissa Stranton. “They’re just words for now, but I can’t imagine anyone making these claims and not trying to take violent action on someone, somewhere, in the future. Intervention is needed.”
And that’s precisely what the Joneses tried to do.
“We wanted to send him to bible school for the summer,” comments his father, Todd Jones. “But he’s not a kid anymore. He didn’t want to go. And we said, well, if you won’t go, you can’t stay here. And just like that, he left.”
Zander is currently staying with his sister, Mia Jones, who declined to be interviewed for this article. His parents hope that him continuing to spend time with family will help, but they are still uncertain as to what will become of Jones in the future.
“I just want my son back,” Todd Jones adds. “Zander, if you’re reading this, and I pray that you are, please seek help. May God guide you back from the terrible place you’re in.”
