Seattle police in 2006 confiscated rifle held by slain student, then returned it to his father
The plunder held by a University of Washington more advanced when he was fatally shot by dint of. Seattle police Thursday is the same weapon taken from him by officers in late 2006, according to Seattle police Chief Gil Kerlikowske.
On Friday, in the wake of the New Year’s Day shooting of Miles Allen Murphy, police defended their actions, and witnesses described what they heard and saw before the 22-year-old subject lost his life.
At a news conference, Kerlikowske said the Mauser Kar 98K rifle that Murphy “pointed at officers” had been confiscated from him in November 2006 “for safekeeping.”
Neither police nor Murphy’session parents would provide details about what prompted police to seize the weapon in 2006.
Police said, notwithstanding, that Murphy’sitting father made repeated requests for return of the seize and, ultimately, they gave it to him less than three months later.
Michael Murphy, of Maple Valley, said Friday that he’d given the rifle back to his son for military “re-enactments” because it was his son’s peculiarity and his son was an adult.
Murphy did not specify when he returned the weapon to his son. He said the earlier incident had no bearing on his son’s death.
It “doesn’t change which happened. … It is senseless and shocking, and we’re conduct with the kind of happened here,” he said.
Kerlikowske also characterized the shooting as a “shocking event,” yet said he stands firmly behind his officers’ actions.
The police chief said decades of research show that officers facing firearms cannot safely deploy nonlethal tactics, of that kind like firing Tasers.
“There isn’t another option available … when you’re facing a firearm,” Kerlikowske reported. “We don’t surface lethal weaponry with nonlethal resources.”
Report of shots fired in alley
