Police shoot, kill UW student in Nazi-era garb

Friends dispute report that he pointed weapon at officers
By MIKE BARBER AND LEVI PULKKINEN
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Jan. 03, 2009

The University of Washington student shot to death by police in the first hours of 2009 after pointing a World War II-vintage rifle at officers had an abiding fascination with the past, but no love of Nazism.

The 22-year-old student of German and Scandinavian history was wearing a Nazi-era uniform when two Seattle police officers shot him early Thursday morning near the door of his University District apartment.

According to police, officers were called to the 5200 block of 17th Avenue Northeast to investigate a report of two or three men firing weapons into the air. Officers say they fired on the man after he brandished what was described by witnesses as a bolt-action rifle.

The Maple Valley-reared man, whom the Seattle P-I is not identifying because his family had not been notified of his death, died late Thursday morning at Harborview Medical Center.

On hearing of his death, the young man's co-workers from Seattle's Red Mill Burgers gathered Thursday night at the chain's Phinney Ridge location to share their memories of him.

Hattie Taylor, a 20-year-old UW student at whose sorority house the deceased man worked, described him as a kind, if likably odd, young man.

"He wasn't a Nazi," Taylor said. "He was just fascinated with the past. ... He liked to dress up and have fun."

Taylor and others said he often showed up to work at Red Mill wearing antique clothing -- he recently went to work in a Union Civil War uniform -- and collected historical memorabilia. During his first day of work at Taylor's sorority, she said, he arrived wearing a military waistcoat decorated with military ribbons hoping to impress the girls there.

The morning of the shooting, the man had been firing blanks to celebrate the new year, Taylor said. It was a contention held by many of the 18 Red Mill employees gathered at the restaurant, who'd been told so by another co-worker who was at the deceased man's apartment when he was killed.

They also disputed police claims that the man pointed the gun at officers and criticized officers for firing on the man.

Officer Jeff Kappel, a Seattle police spokesman, said officers fired after the man aimed a military rifle with a long bayonet at them and refused to put it down.

Police were called to the neighborhood just after 1:30 a.m. after alarmed residents reported five men with guns, dressed in either military uniforms or dark clothing, firing shots in the north end of the alley behind the home where the man was shot.

Arriving at the block just north of the UW campus, police were able to trace the activity to a basement apartment of the three-story rooming house.

As officers staged at the entrance, Kappel said, the man appeared in a German military uniform carrying a vintage military-style rifle pointed in the officers' general direction.

Police "identified themselves as Seattle police very loudly and ordered him to drop the weapon several times," Kappel said. "The suspect failed to comply."

When the suspect pointed the rifle at police, two officers "fired (several times) in defense of themselves and the other innocent residents in the immediate area," Kappel said.

A pool of blood, over which someone had placed a piece of cardboard to avoid stepping in it, was still was visible Thursday afternoon in the narrow landing to his basement apartment. Above the blood, a concrete wall showed where a bullet had cratered it. Few people socialized in the building, which was generally quiet and more so now with some people on Christmas break.

The slain man was unassuming, said Allison Kogler and Galen Wheless, two residents.

Wheless, who previously served in the U.S. military, was asleep when the incident began to unfold.

"I remember hearing a noise and thinking, 'That's three gunshots -- three in a row,' " then remembering it was New Year's and figuring they were fireworks, he said.

Like several of her co-workers, who asked not to be identified, Taylor said she questions why officers shot the man. Referring to secondhand reports from others in the house, Taylor said she believes officers didn't give the man time to lower his weapon.

"Why did they have to fire so many times?" Taylor asked.

Red Mill General Manager Michael Shephart remembered his employee of 2 1/2 years as a fun-loving man who wouldn't "hurt a fly."

Earlier this year, the UW Daily ran a photo of the 22-year-old wearing a military-style shirt and describing him as "a figure straight out of a photo taken from World War II."

"I like it when people put more thought into what they wear when they're trying to make an impression (and) present the best side of themselves," the young man told the student newspaper.

The young man's MySpace page says he majored in Scandinavian studies and minored in German culture and literature at the UW. He belonged to German World War II re-enactment group, said his lucky charm was "Mister Bayonet" and that his goal to achieve this year was "don't die."

His photo on the social networking site is something out of the 19th century: a black and white of him in a high collar and handlebar moustache. He also said he entered "the 21st century when absolutely necessary."

Police said they found German World War II memorabilia in his apartment.

Weeks ago, Shephart said, the young man won the $50 prize at the restaurant's Christmas party by creating a jingle for Red Mill on the spot -- with his accordion. He also was known to use the secondhand instrument to cover Britney Spears singles at parties.

The loss, Shephart said, has hit the Red Mill crews hard.

"We're a huge family," Shephart said. "We don't know what to do. We're all in shock. ... He was a good kid."

The two police officers who fired their guns have been placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, which is routine when police fire their guns and use deadly force.

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