A Tacoma college student has been hospitalised and served with an Extreme Risk Protection Order after investigators say he posted a photograph of a shotgun on Discord alongside messaging that referenced a mass shooting, prompting a rapid response from police and university officials that resulted in the weapon being recovered from a wooded area in Bellevue.
Officers received a crisis complaint just before 1 p.m. on 26 May after the photograph of a shotgun appeared in a Discord message. According to police, the student had become increasingly erratic and radicalised in his behaviour and was described as clearly modelling his ideology on a mass murderer. University officials were notified immediately.
While investigators were assessing the situation, they learned the man, who lives in Seattle, had left his apartment carrying a shotgun case. Patrol officers working alongside the Seattle Police Department’s Crisis Response Team located and detained him, believing he presented an imminent danger to the public. He did not have the shotgun on him at the time of his detention.
Paramedics transported the man to a local hospital for medical evaluation. He was also served with an Extreme Risk Protection Order, a legal tool that prevents individuals deemed at high risk of harming themselves or others from accessing firearms when there is demonstrated evidence of significant danger.
During questioning, the man told police he had buried the shotgun in wooded terrain near Robinson Community Park in Bellevue. Officers searched the area and located the weapon, finding that the identifying markings had been scratched off. The gun was seized as evidence. Detectives in the Crisis Response Unit are assigned to the ongoing investigation.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, thoughts of suicide, or emotional distress, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling or texting 988.
