Scene cleared after report of armed man in hospital parking lot
SEATTLE -- Seattle police officers have sounded the all clear at Swedish Hospital after getting a report of an armed man nearby.
Just after 9:30 a.m., a man called police and reported he had seen a man carrying a rifle in the Swedish Hospital parking garage at 16th Avenue and Jefferson Street.
Both SPD officers and SWAT team members searched the building and surrounding area for two hours but were never able to confirm the lone report.
Just after 9:30 a.m., a man called police and reported he had seen a man carrying a rifle in the Swedish Hospital parking garage at 16th Avenue and Jefferson Street.
Both SPD officers and SWAT team members searched the building and surrounding area for two hours but were never able to confirm the lone report.
I have a strong suspicion there was no actual man with a gun. This being a Rainy day, perhaps it was a gentleman carrying an umbrella, mistaken for a lethal weapon? I could be wrong, however if this guy were real, my guess we would have seen security video on every tv station in the state by now.
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It did give the spd swat team an opportunity to practice clearing urban stairwells, garages and kick the tires on the mega mobile super doper uber-cool command center.
 @Harrison http://gadget.brando.com/the-rifle-umbrella_p01607c038d001.html
So a quick check over @ King 5 and their piece on it read that the man was HOLDING a gun, if he was brandishing a firearm then it was a legit call, however, the SPD can find no trace of this person. I suggest that we get the 911 call with a FOIA request and find out exactly what this "hospital contractor" called in in the first place.Â
Actually this happened at Swedish Medical Center, not Swedish Hospital if the 16th Ave. address is being reported correctly.Â
 @caphillkid cherry hill
@caphillkid Swedish Hospital/Cherry Hill Campus. That IS a hospital - I am a patient there. They do cardiac surgery, also neuroscience stuff, and something else - behavioral science, I think.
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The garage where this all happened is my favorite hospital garage. The top level usually has a lot of open spaces - no need to manuever into a tight space like you do in many other city garages. The view of the city is terrific!
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Too bad they didn't find the guy. It means the hospital staff is left wondering if he's wandering around some place, if they're safe.
People probably don't care, but they are completely different locations. You get what you pay for when you copy paste from SPD blotter.Â
cigarettes 10.00 a pack, some see people rolling their own and think its a joint . oh, the nowa days
Happened to me once in Kent. I was at a pet store with my puppy and the cashier noticed my firearm in a holster under my jacket when I was getting my wallet. I never took out the Sig or threatened him. I paid for the merchandise and left. As I got into my car, the scanner reported an armed man with a small white dog. I was going.....is that me? Of course my plate number was read and the Kent PD cancelled the BOLO. I can't believe the cashier overreacted and called 911.
 @Vince there are many people that are simply scared of guns.. they don't know anything about the rules, or CPLs or open carry.Â
 @Komo Dragon  @Vince I think it goes beyond that: its an irrational fear. They have been programmed to think guns are bad, instead of people are bad. There are many of those who have this type of fear right hear on these forums.
Walking around with a rifle in your hands is NOT open carry. It's brandishing, and unless your life is in danger, it's not legal. Now if the guy had it on his back, yeah that's legal.....I wouldn't necessarily say it's the smartest move and I personally wouldn't do it myself. But legal. If I ever were to do it, I would expect police contact, to be talked to by officers at the very least. Considering they couldn't even find the guy I somewhat doubt the veracity of the call in the first place.
 @dg54321 Not exactly. Brandishing is a rather clumsy grey area, but the test usually involves some kind of intent to intimidate etc. Just walking around with a rifle in your hands is not automatically brandishing but it May be.
 @dg54321 Your opinion on this seems reasonable. There's nothing that I saw in the article that indicated whether this individual had the weapon slung or in his hands, so we of course, are speculating.Â
I can imagine if this guy walked into the hospital and started shooting people, and later it came out that someone had called the police and stated they saw a man in the parking garage with a rifle, but the police replied, "Well, unless he's threatening someone directly with the rifle, we don't come out, because you know... Open carry." Can you even imagine the outrage following that?
 @TruthinAdverts I guess we should ban guns right, because once we did I'm sure everyone would follow the law and get rid of their guns...
 @NorthwestEconomist NWEco... now where did I imply a ban on firearms? As I mentioned, I was raised around them. I own firearms. I don't think it's responsible to pack an un-holstered weapon in public. I don't really understand why a responsible gunowner would try to imply that it is?
 @TruthinAdverts  @NorthwestEconomist Where I grew up people packed them around all the time. I remember watching people walk through the mall with them as they walked to or from the sporting goods store. Nobody thought anything of it. You probably couldn't do it today because people have become basically stupid but thats the way it is.
 @TruthinAdverts Yeah, you're right, it might be a legitimate threat, we don't know yet, we are speculating.
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But we DO know that millions of tax payer money has been paid out in settlements by SPD, Bellingham PD and other ignorant law enforcement organizations who are harassing gun owners throughout the state. As tax payers we need to demand that law enforcement does not screw up like that.
 @NorthwestEconomist Ah, I thought your Columbine point was to imply that legally armed people at the school... for example teachers... might have somehow abated that tragedy. Of course an armed police officer was indeed at the school. That was my point in that reference. As for my point regarding open carry... IF the individual with the weapon is carrying it in hand... Intervention is appropriate. I'm just a little vexed as to why someone needs to even have one slung at the hospital, but hey, that's just me.
 @TruthinAdverts  @NorthwestEconomist You completely missed the point about Columbine, the shooters there HID their weapons from others with their long coats and bags, that's why it didn't matter at all that any law enforcement might have been on site, unless you give cops x-ray vision and you are OK with that, you will NEVER stop people from carrying around weapons in a free society no matter how many laws you try to make or how many zones are off-limits.
 @TruthinAdverts  @NorthwestEconomist Wow. This is  like a chess match..
 @NorthwestEconomist You were the one who brought up Columbine... Don't get upset because I corrected you on it. Listen... you are getting awfully defensive over me stating it was my opinion someone carrying a rifle (as in... in their hands) in a hospital parking lot was irresponsible. Really?
 @TruthinAdverts  @NorthwestEconomist You are right....an UN-holstered weapon is irresponsible and in fact illegal. A holstered weapon is quite legal and harms nobody. If that's what you meant, I totally agree.
 @TruthinAdverts What does that have to do with making it illegal to openly carry a rifle near a hospital or anywhere else? Are you going to outlaw trench coats too? Are you going to give police x-ray vision?Â
 @NorthwestEconomist There was an armed police officer on duty AT Columbine when the two shooters started their rampage. You knew that, right?
 @TruthinAdverts  @NorthwestEconomist I guess we should ban the open carrying of guns, because that will force people not to carry them at all. It's not like you can hide a rifle under a long coat or anything. Do you see how trying to legislate everything constantly fails, or how many columbines does it take?
Is it comforting to see some bloke wandering the hospital parking garage with a rifle in his hands? Not to me it's not. There's a place for rifles... Â the hospital parking garage aint it.Â
 @TruthinAdverts I usually feel more comfortable when I see a citizen legally open carrying, criminals don't carry in the open. You'd be surprised how many people feel that way.
 @NorthwestEconomist Oh I get where you are coming from NWEco... but... I'm not comfortable with someone else's need to pack their rifle around a hospital parking garage...Ok, perhaps that's just me? I mean, I was raised hunting. I understand rifles. I don't understand the need to pack them around a hospital??
 @NorthwestEconomist  @TruthinAdverts I work at Swedish. So for me...uncomfortable.
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Either way...it's not against the law to call the police. It's not really appropriate to be walking around a hospital parking lot with a rifle. I wouldn't want to be the one who didn't call the police and then find out he was the freak who went in and killed people. Better to be safe than sorry. Don't you think?
Open Carry is legal in Washington. That means it's perfectly legal for a man to carry a gun in a holster on his hip and the police can't even ask him for ID unless they have RAS that he is doing something wrong.
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I'd like to hear the 911 call that sparked this. My guess it's some idiot Seattlite liberal who freaked out about an "MWAG" (man with a gun). The dispatcher should have asked them if the guy was brandishing it or not, then told the caller to stop bothering 911 for legal citizens exercising their rights.Â
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SPD has paid out a lot of settlement money to citizens who were open carrying. The new training memo for officers on this matter tells them NOT to harass open carriers. My guess is this was a huge waste of money and if they find the guy it could be an even bigger waste of money. Thanks Chief Diaz for flushing our tax dollars down the toilet.
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Check out OpenCarry.org to learn more about your WA constitutional rights.
@NorthwestEconomist I don't care, guns are not toys or manly accesories. If I see someone displaying a gun in my neighborhood I am call 911.
 @Citizen#3457899654  @NorthwestEconomist So, if your neighbor is mowing his grass that is his property, he shouldn't be able to carry a firearm? If you call 911 on that, I hope he would put up a sign indicating your house does not support gun ownership. Or do you not want him to have his 1st AND 2nd rights violated?
 @Citizen#3457899654  @NorthwestEconomist By the way, did you know it is illegal to make false calls to the police department? Try and do this more than once and you may find out. Hopefully you will get a dispatcher who asks you if the person is brandishing the weapon or is it secured to their body. Learn the law.
 @Citizen#3457899654  @NorthwestEconomist Thanks a lot for wasting  our money, I wish we could bill you for those calls. Can you send your payment info to the police department since times are tough and you already know that you're reporting innocent citizens and wasting people's time? How would you feel if your calls took their attention away from a real crime and someone was hurt or died? Do you have any shame?
 @NorthwestEconomist Even a rifle? I would think I would see more people with "holsters" and rifles walking around.
 @Alexa  @NorthwestEconomist Yes, even with a rifle. Only concealed pistols require you to have the appropriate license. Rifles and shotguns are typically slung across the back, in order to not be considered brandishing.
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Your gun owner friend may not be a part of the open carry crowd. There are plenty that are, and part of their point is to help the community become familiar with seeing guns.
 @Alexa  @Gadget08  @NorthwestEconomist I think we are all talking about the same thing. Holstered = OK, rifle even strapped on your back = OK....rifle or pistol in hands = brandishing and NOT ok
 @Gadget08  @NorthwestEconomist I would have no problem seeing a holstered gun. But if you start walking around with your gun unholstered in your hand...I think that would scare me? Is that unreasonable?
 @NorthwestEconomist Okay..I just verified this and it is correct but the person I just spoke to who is an avid gun owner, said it's still socially inappropriate. I agree.
 @Alexa You know what else is socially inappropriate? I guess we could sit here for hours and make stuff up. It's nice that laws don't legislate morality, nope, that's what the SPD is for....
It's about time for a KOMO update me thinks.
Rights are one thing, but when I obtained my concealed weapons permit there was a clause about not causing alarm in public and I accepted that as a condition of carrying a gun as a functional member of society I accept our societies rules and laws. IF this person was only 'rearranging their trunk' their right to do that does not exceed societies right to feel safe or the hospitals right to conduct business as normal. IF that was the case and this poor innocent person was just rearranging his trunk at a hospital, then I'd say he is not smart enough, he is not high enough on the evolutionary scale to be trusted with a gun.
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My daughter is pregnant, works at that hospital, and is forced to hide (barracaded) in a locked room with no windows, what about her rights and the rights of her unborn child. Doesn't their rights exceed some idiots need to display a gun in a public place (in any way that causes anyone to be alarmed).
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The rights of the many out weigh the rights of the few.
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Carrying guns legally, all for it, idiots carrying guns either illegally or in a way that threatens others ... those people do not have that right.
 @Scott Mc "IF that was the case and this poor innocent person was just rearranging his trunk at a hospital, then I'd say he is not smart enough, he is not high enough on the evolutionary scale to be trusted with a gun."  Thats going to be a pretty tough argument to make. No facts, only hyperbole. Not many people are going to go for it.
 @Scott Mc Have you seen the pickle girl on Maury? Just go to youtube and type in "pickel girl Maury" and you will see a video of a talkshow about a woman who is scared to death of pickles.Â
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Some people feel threatened by completely legal behavior. Why should we care about their comfort level? My guess is that this could have been a person legally open carrying and some ignorant person overreacted.
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Then again, it could have been a legitimate threat. We'll see once the 911 call has been released to the public.
 @NorthwestEconomist  @Scott Mc Halloween must be a bear for those with a fear of Zombies and vampires.
It was just me; I just got done working out at the gym and had parked in the garage. I was changing shirts and someone must have gotten scared when they saw my "guns". Sorry about that guys.
 @northwestsurfer Man a person can't groan loud enough:-)
Anyways...
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@Mr. NW I wish I had thought of that one instead
 @northwestsurfer You beat me to it.  Next time my friend...
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