Man kills self in front of children at Bellevue gun-safety class
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BELLEVUE, Wash. - A 50-year-old man shot and killed himself during a gun-safety class at a Bellevue gun range.
Brian J. Parry is believed to have shot himself in the head with a pistol Sunday during a class at West Coat Armory, a gun range and dealer with outlets in Bellevue and Issaquah.
Bellevue police spokeswoman Carla Iafrate confirmed that police are investigating the shooting but refused to release details. She said the investigation into Parry’s death is ongoing.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office earlier this week ruled Parry’s death a suicide. He died of a contact gunshot wound to the head.
In an email, a man describing himself as a witness to the shooting said the dead man – identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office as Parry – stood in front of more than a dozen people participating in the class and ended his life.
Several children saw the shooting, which occurred at West Coast Armory’s indoor range at 13216 S.E. 32nd St. in Bellevue.
West Coast did not immediately return a request for comment made Thursday morning.
According to the business website, the gun range offered an entry-level handgun course the day of the shooting. Participants paid $75 for three hours of instruction meant to teach students how to load and use pistols and revolvers.
The incident was first publicized by BellevuePatch.
Brian J. Parry is believed to have shot himself in the head with a pistol Sunday during a class at West Coat Armory, a gun range and dealer with outlets in Bellevue and Issaquah.
Bellevue police spokeswoman Carla Iafrate confirmed that police are investigating the shooting but refused to release details. She said the investigation into Parry’s death is ongoing.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office earlier this week ruled Parry’s death a suicide. He died of a contact gunshot wound to the head.
In an email, a man describing himself as a witness to the shooting said the dead man – identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office as Parry – stood in front of more than a dozen people participating in the class and ended his life.
Several children saw the shooting, which occurred at West Coast Armory’s indoor range at 13216 S.E. 32nd St. in Bellevue.
West Coast did not immediately return a request for comment made Thursday morning.
According to the business website, the gun range offered an entry-level handgun course the day of the shooting. Participants paid $75 for three hours of instruction meant to teach students how to load and use pistols and revolvers.
The incident was first publicized by BellevuePatch.
@Leonce this is an affluent tech money suburb, even more american
Maybe this man was ready to commit suicide and wanted the children to see the reality of death by gun. If so he'll have a special reward in heaven. My dad, who ran away at age 13, was a fireman on the railroad back in his teens, also the teen years of the 20th century. On his time off he earned bounty money and got a reputation as one of the railroad's best sharpshooters by riding the slow freights that puffed laboriously up the Bighorns and the Rockies, killing jackrabbits with a rifle. He'd leap off, collect the carcass, chase the train and leap back on. He and his best friend were walking down the street in Cheyenne, WY, one evening just as a shootout fight began in a nearby saloon. A bullet went through his friend's head. Dad saw it all, quit the railroad, and from then on never touched a firearm, rifle or pistol. After I was born he became an industrial engineer specializing in safety--saving, not taking, lives. No guns were allowed in our house. He refused my begging for a BB gun, and I found out why. When I was in 8th grade and walking home from school I got a BB in my shin from a boy shooting his air rifle randomly. Nothing serious, but it hurt and bled into my sock, so I threw away that pair of socks and never said a word to my parents. I knew Dad would speak to the boy's parents. The kid was so good-looking I had a crush on him and I didn't want to get him in trouble. I should have, since a few weeks later one of his friends shot out one of his eyes. He was no longer good-looking and nearly died. "Guns and kids don't belong together," Dad used to say, and it is SO TRUE.
@Jenny No hes in hell where he belongs. In life he was so selfish and intolerant he chose to commit suicide rather than face a world or circumstances he disagreed with. But that wasn't enough for a self absorbed narcissist, Just so he could get the last word he chose to scar a whole group of young people for life in a horrific stunt designed to stigmatize an activity his arrogance wouldn't permit other people engage in. His intolerant irresponsible attempt to to cloak his cowardice in martyrdom at the expense of people who were behaving responsibly is just disgusting. Not that I have any right to say but,  hes in hell, he put himself there, and its where he belongs.
@Citizen X @Jenny Who are you to say where he is? No one.
@Jenny Realistically though, that kid needed his parents to be parents. Guns are tools, not toys. In a day and age where a nerf gun's purpose is to point it at people, you have to make an effort to tell them not to or when the day comes for them to move on to a BB gun, or a .22 rifle, it's engrained in their brain.
Damn, people are getting Crazy on that side of the World, I hope they got there money back...
Sounds like the jury's still out on whether it was a suicide or stupidity.Â
@taterpie I was super-confused there because I thought it was Bellevue the NY mental hospital, now I'm just confused.
@JanvierUK Hehe. Suburb of Seattle.
I wanna know what school children were doing at a handgun class in the first place?! In my state you have to be 21 to own a pistol. I believe you need to be at least 18 in any other state too.
@Dermal Deviations I should think it would be pretty obvious that one doesn't need to own a handgun in order to learn to safely handle one.
I guess he wanted to provide an argument for gun control and mental health measures. If someone could do this in front of kids it's just a matter of time until someone takes out a few people before shooting themselves.
"...meant to teach students how to load and use pistols and revolvers."
Well I guess that is one way to use a pistol.
I''ll assume he was not paying attention in class. Â
As horrific as this sounds, I'm not sure it's such a bad thing for people to be exposed to death at an early age. Makes one appreciate life all the more. I'm talking real death, not make believe 'just hit the reset' button death, or fade to black death. Real blood and don't get back up again death. Perhaps our separation from the true realities of death have desensitized us to it?  Something certainly has.
@gscott Kind of like the old Star Trek episode where all the killing in their war was very sanitary.
@aileen206 heard about it earlier this week through the grapevine, i thought it was at the range not a class...damn
%s I read that story yesterday and was saddened someone would take their life in such a public way. %s
@LiveTVDirector It's kinda like the Aurora Bridge jumpers. Why traumatize all those workers below when there's a more private option?
That's a bit counterproductive.Â
This is messed up
Aren't guns grand? All it takes is a little wiggle of the finger to destroy the lives of everyone around you. Â What horrible and cowardly thing do to. Â
@DT Ah yes, its the guns that caused him to be suicidal and all he had to do was stand there while the gun jumped into his hand and pulled its own trigger. I love the short sighted comments like this, so easy to refute with a tiny bit of common sense.
@DTHorrible and cowardly, but it's not the gun's fault. Perhaps you'd have preferred Seppuku for him. I'm sure that wouldn't have traumatized the people around him nearly so much.
@Commenter87643Â @DT So true. In Japan people jump in front of trains with a high degree of frequency. I wonder how traumatizing it is for the people to see the mangled body flying through the air or being scraped off the train etc. But hey, those evil trains are causing people to kill themselves so we should ban them. No wait, its not a ban. Its just a prohibition on trains that carry more than a certain number of people. These anti-gunners should stop and listen to themselves so they can see how idiotic they sound.
@Commenter87643Â @DTÂ Fully. Why couldn't the douche do it outside in the woods or something?
And this class is a lesson on how NOT to handle a gun safely... Okay I think we're done for the day.
Doesn't anybody appreciate good comedy? It's being wasted.
@yourbuddyÂ
...turn 6 already.
@Poisonous Giraffe @yourbuddy NEVER!!!! BTW I love penguins too.
A search of Washington State courts show that his wife divorced him at the end of last year and he was a defendant in a district court case, not sure what was involved. Not as an excuse for what he did but maybe gives a little understanding. Divorce can be messy business.Â
This reminds me of Buddy Dwyer. Â I have no idea why people feel compelled to drag others into their own world of hurt. Â What a selfish thing to do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Budd_Dwyer
This is unfortunate. However, think of all the murder-suicide stories we've seen on this very site in which people ask why the killer didn't simply kill himself and avoid killing others as well. This guy - to his credit - limited his gunfire to his own body. What he did was not ideal. It was not admirable. It was not "good." Â
But compared to the conduct of others, it was certainly less-bad.
@Whobeke Well, you are correct that this fellow must have read the memo that instructs "do the suicide part first!"
What a selfish jerk.Â
@Tattooed_Angel2Â Yeah, I mean HOW DARE HE inject himself into all our arguments over gun rights vs. gun control!? How rude! </sarcasm>
@JLS1950Â What are you rambling on about?
@goooolz @JLS1950 @Tattooed_Angel2 Okay, I'll buy that.
@JLS1950Â @Tattooed_Angel2Â He took innocence from those children. And of course suicides are selfish. We all have bad things in our lives and some people have extremely terrible things and still make things work.
@Tattooed_Angel2Â @JLS1950Â You just called the dead guy "selfish". What - pray - did he take with him?
I feel for the kids that saw that. I am just glad this idiot gave himself a retro active abortion. To bad he did not do at home.
What a jackass. If you're going to end your life, do it privately and don't parade it in front of innocent bystanders.
What a prick. If he tried taking on anyone else, I'm sure he'd be put down quickly. I wonder if he used a loaner gun, as he wasn't able to own one. West Coast Armory is top notch BTW.
@RoRo206Â Why wasn't he able to own one? Â The gun he used was one from WCA, the class he took lets them try a bunch of different guns.
Such a foolish way to make a point if he was trying to. At least he didn't take anyone with him.
@Bubbens20 we totally need more guns!and what a great gun safety class this must have been!great for the kids!
@liberallisaLess guns would make no difference in this case, maybe no guns, but that is a liberal pipe-dream. Maybe all you anit-gunners could build a time machine and go back and un-invent firearms, but then you wouldn't have the Freedom of Speech, Religion,...
@liberallisa - I personally am planning to purchase an assault rifle and two pistols for each of my kids when they graduate from high school
@Bubbens20 @liberallisa Good luck, Assault rifles have been heavily regulated since 1934 and banned from being manufactured for consumer use since 1986. They are illegal to transfer in WA state, but if you move to Oregon, or Idaho and have a butt load of cash you might be able to get one... ;)
@Bubbens20 @liberallisa what is it that makes you call the rifles you want to buy for your kids an assault rifle . Or did you mean to say target rifle ?Â
@Bubbens20 hahaha!!makes a great Christmas gift,too!ak 47..fun for the whole family!
@Bubbens20 @liberallisa @Bubbens20 If the "target" is also holding an AR-15, can we call it "Shoot the Tail Off the Jackass"?
â@liberallisa: @Bubbens20 hahaha!let's play shoot the tail off the donkey!â - Works best with an AR-15.
@Bubbens20 hahaha!let's play shoot the tail off the donkey!
@liberallisa - Yes! There's no substitute for a bracing game of Russian Roulette at birthday celebrations.