Monday, January 5, 2009
City King County Prosecutors Tried to Keep Guns Out of 18-year-old Shooting Suspect's Hands
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 3:08 PM
Earlier this year, King County prosecutors made a concerted effort to keep guns out of the hands of one of the suspects in Sunday's shooting at Chop Suey.
In 2007, Carlos Bernardez—the 18-year-old man arrested by Seattle police last night in connection with the shooting at Chop Suey over the weekend—was charged with illegally possessing a .45 caliber pistol.
On September 18th, 2007, a gang unit on patrol in the Yesler Terrace neighborhood spotted Bernardez and a group of other teens hanging out in Pratt Park. According to a police report, officers approached the group for a "social contact" and talked with Hernandez. The teens left the park and soon after, officers found a blue backpack in a garbage can. Inside the backpack, police found the pistol—which was apparently stolen—wrapped in a t-shirt, along with Bernardez's school registration forms. Officers arrested Bernardez later that night.
Bernardez, then 17, was found guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm and given a deferred disposition—essentially a "stay out of trouble" order—by Judge Carol Schapira.
Bernardez managed to keep clean for a year and had the original guilty verdict wiped from his record. Judge Schapira issued a ruling restoring Bernardez's right to possess a gun, much to the dismay of King County prosecutors.
"We opposed him having his right to have a gun," says King County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Dan Donahoe.
Generally, when someone is convicted of a firearms violation, they lose their right to own a gun and must wait some time—depending on the crime—to petition the court to reinstate their right to possess a weapon.
Being legally prohibited from owning a firearm wouldn't necessarily have prevented this weekend's shooting—the gun used to kill 29-E and wound two others was a .45 caliber but doesn't appear to bethe same one taken from Bernardez in 2007 and, for that matter, we don't know that Bernardez was involved in the shooting—but the prosecutor's office sure seemed to think Bernardez and guns were a bad mix.
Judge Schapira declined to comment on the case.
Bail for Bernardez and Roger Labranche, also arrested in connection with Sunday's shooting, has been set at $2 million each.
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I know you yokels aren't much for the book learnin', but it's on page two. Ask cletus or clem what numbers are more than one, they might be more helpful!
In a rational world, of course, people convicted of gun crimes would never get their gun rights restored ever.
I don't recall seeing anything mentioning whether or not the gun he actually used at the Chop Suey was legal or not...anyone know?
The idiot judge is probably neither. It was probably previous precedent that let this douche have a gun. The judge can't make a judgment that is unduly harsh ("harsh" being a subjective term). Sort of like if the last 1000 punks got their guns back, you can't deny this punk #1001 his gun. You have to give the punk a sentence that is similar to previous cases.
True, but that doesn't mean that it's a good idea, or that he should be encouraged to keep or buy them. We don't know right now what offense he was a part of that made the prosecutor so intent on taking away that right.
"I don't recall seeing anything mentioning whether or not the gun he actually used at the Chop Suey was legal or not...anyone know?"
I guess we'll find that out shortly.
Racist liberals are so...strange.
Fnarf. C'mon man.Do you know how much gas you'll waste trying to get to Stormfront by way of DailyKOS? It's like, totally not worth the trip either.
Including in Seattle.
But, hey, let's all lie and say people should have guns cause they're in a "militia".
Even if almost all of those with guns aren't doing tours of duty in Iraq (clusterfuck) or Aghanistan/Pakistan (real war).
(1) In the person's place of abode;
(2) At the person's fixed place of business; or
(3) On real property under his or her control.
RCW 9.41.240
Racist liberals are so...strange.
Fnarf. C'mon man.Do you know how much gas you'll waste trying to get to Stormfront by way of DailyKOS? It's like, totally not worth the trip either."
His name WAS Carlos, you moron.
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