(Image: SPD)
A college student living in a Capitol Hill apartment has been hospitalized and served with an Extreme Risk Protection Order after a tense search around Cal Anderson Park and Pike/Pine Tuesday afternoon after police say the student posted a picture of a shotgun on a messaging app referencing a mass shooting.
The Seattle Police Department says the situation began Tuesday afternoon around 1 PM when a caller reported the student had posted a photograph of a shotgun on the Discord social media and messaging platform. The gun appeared to be inscribed “with concerning messages regarding a prolific mass shooter.”
“The weapon was linked to a student who, according to police, had become, “increasingly erratic and radicalized’ and ‘clearly modeling his ideology off of a mass murderer,’” SPD said in its brief.
According to SPD, the student’s school was immediately notified.
Officers located the student at one point Tuesday but they were reported as “not compliant,” refusing to answer questions and returning to the apartment.
Police were then told the student had left the Capitol Hill apartment with a shotgun carrying case.
According to SPD reports and East Precinct radio updates, police and SPD’s Crisis Response Team searched for the student and the shotgun near the Capitol Hill apartment building including officers fanning out through areas including busy Cal Anderson.
The student was eventually located back at the apartment where police detained the individual who “now presented an imminent danger to the public.”
The shotgun was not located.
SPD says paramedics transported the student to a local hospital for medical evaluation and served an ERPO, “which prevents individuals at high risk of harming themselves or others from accessing firearms when there is demonstrated evidence that the person poses a significant danger.”
Police say the student said they buried the shotgun in the woods near Robinson Community Park in Bellevue where police searched the area and found the gun with the writing scratched off. It was taken into evidence.
Under the ERPO process, the subject would be part of a hearing in the coming weeks. A judge will weigh evidence and evaluation and rule to either dissolve the temporary order and return any confiscated weapons, or extend the order into a Final/Long-Term ERPO, which generally lasts for up to one year.
The student may also face criminal charges.
SPD says you can reach resources to help with mental health assistance through the National Suicide and Crisis Hotline by calling 988 and learn more about Extreme Risk Protection Orders in Seattle here.
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