BlueLivesMatterBY OFFICER BLUE
University of Washington hosted Breitbart News Network editor Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at a sold-out event. The event, which coincided with the night of the presidential inauguration, drew a crowd of mostly peaceful protesters.
Later on in the protest, a group of anarchists dressed in black showed up and started assaulting police officers who were defending the event attendees. Anarchists threw flammable paint, explosives, and bricks at officers. University of Washington PD and Seattle PD were working together to hold the scene when a scuffle broke out between a pro-trump group and rioters.
During the scuffle, a 34-year-old who was dressed in all black (like the anarchists) was shot by an unidentified male from the pro-Trump crowd.
The event was captured on video:
It’s not clear exactly what led up to the scuffle. The gunshot victim was a 34-year-old bald male who appeared to be getting dragged away from the pro-Trump crowd at the time he was shot.
After the shooting, the unfazed rioters and protesters still stuck around until they decided it was too cold.
The male shooter later turned himself into University of Washington police and was questioned. The shooter claimed that he was assaulted by the other man whom he believed to be a white supremacist. Seattle Timesreports that he was not a white supremacist, just an idiot who has a tattoo with a red line and circle over a swastika as an anti-Nazi tattoo, just to show how much he’s not Nazi. It was not confirmed if the critically injured man was an anarchist or if he was just hanging around anarchists while dressed all in black and allegedly acting violently.
After the shooter was questioned, police consulted with the prosecutor, and they decided to release the shooter, pending a further investigation.
The man who was shot was hit in the abdomen and his life was saved by Seattle PD officers on scene who provided first aid and got him transported to the hospital.
For those wondering, this shooting did happen in a gun-free zone. Our police sources in Seattle advised us that having a weapon on University of Washington campus is a violation of campus rules, but is not a specific crime.
The shooter isn’t free and clear yet though. There’s a difference between self-defense and self-offense, and the reasonableness of the shooting will be judged before a charging decision is made.