“Seattle Police Begin Taking Citizens Guns Away, No Warrants or Charges,” a headline from the website Neon Nettle claimed early Wednesday. Multiple blog sites reported the same.
What’s the truth?
A Seattle man did have his pistol confiscated by police this month through an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO), which the article from Neon Nettle cites.
The order, however, is a warrant. As Seattle police Detective Patrick Michaud reported, “The Seattle Police Department became the first law enforcement agency in Washington State to serve an Extreme Risk Protection Order warrant on Thursday when officers from SPD’s Crisis Response Squad seized a handgun from a man in downtown Seattle.” The warrant was issued after the individual failed to attend his court hearing.
Contrary to Neon Nettle’s reporting, the man was also arrested “for violating a previous order to turn over his firearms,” Detective Michaud reported.
Neon Nettle also used an image of several guns in the article that were not a part of the ERPO confiscation, but were from a 2017 arrest of a drug dealer in Seattle. In fact, none of the images used in the article are related to the story.
The blog post incorrectly states that no warrant was issued, ignores that the man was previously ordered to turn over his weapons, and uses several unrelated and misleading images in the piece.
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