Man carries gun into community center to protest ban
 

A Kent man who announced Friday that he intended to carry a pistol into a West Seattle community center to trigger a lawsuit challenging Seattle's ban on guns in public spaces did just that Saturday, and was promptly asked to leave.

Bob Warden, 44, announced his intentions in an e-mail Friday morning to media as well as to the city of Seattle, including the police and city attorney.

On Saturday, Warden walked into the Southwest Community Center at 2801 SW Thistle Street with a Glock-27 .40-caliber sub-compact pistol under a black jacket in a holster strap over his left shoulder. Parks Department employee Lisa Harrison asked him to leave, and he did.

"I'm not here as a Second Amendment activist," Warden said. "I'm here as a citizen who believes in the rule of law."

Warden, who said he's never discharged a weapon outside a firing range, added that the idea occurred to him in the past couple of days.

Media, Seattle Police and a handful of supporters were on hand. Warden sent out an e-mail Friday announcing his intentions.

"As a courtesy, this is advance notice that at noon tomorrow, Saturday, November 14, I plan to exercise my legal right to bear arms in Seattle's Southwest Community Center, 2801 SW Thistle Street," Warden said in his e-mail. "I will be safely and securely carrying my holstered Glock pistol. I have a current valid State of Washington License to Carry Concealed."

Bud Shasteen, 75, an NRA member member of the Second Amendment Foundation, was among Warden's supporters.

"I'm glad he is doing it," Shasteen said. "I'm sorry I didn't think of it. I'd have done it myself."

Alex Kaehler, 16, and his sister, Jeanmarie Kaehler, 20, were also on hand to support the move. Neither owns a weapon, but both said they want to.

"The mayor was definitely way out of line when he passed the law," said Alex Kaehler, who lives in SeaTac. "I'm glad somebody is challenging him."

Mayor Greg Nickels said the ban is intended to protect children. Warden objected to that reasoning.

"Nickels has never presented any evidence to suggest how responsible concealed-weapon carrying is a threat to children in a park," Warden said.

Nickels said on Oct. 14 that guns would be banned on such city facilities as parks and community centers where children gather. Signs banning guns have been posted at city parks.

Late last month, gun-rights advocates sued, saying the ban violates state law.

But Warden, a licensed attorney in the state, said Friday he worries that the earlier lawsuit may be thrown out because those who filed it lack legal standing.

Warden said he does not actively practice law. He said he works in labor relations for the federal government but would not describe his job further.

He said he is taking the action because he believes the ban is illegal. He noted that the state Attorney General's Office has said so.

"They know full well it's illegal, but they went ahead and did it anyway," Warden said Friday.

Warden described himself as a political independent, but a man who has probably voted for only two Republicans in his life.

He said he is not a member of the National Rifle Association, but was certified by that organization as a pistol instructor. He said he uses the certification in his volunteer work with the Boy Scouts.

"I'm not some gun rights nut," he said Friday.

Monica Guzman can be reached at 206-448-8381 or monicaguzman@seattlepi.com.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/41230...tml?source=rss

Re: Man carries gun into community center to protest ban
 

Re: Man carries gun into community center to protest ban
 

+1 on the picture!!!

:36_1_32v:

Re: Man carries gun into community center to protest ban
 

Seattle's mayor needs to make sure the people are unarmed so they can't defend themselves from violent attacks by someone who sets fire to preschools with kids inside. Can't have any more incidents like this one.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ooting10m.html

Man killed at Westlake had set fire at mom's home in '01

By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter

Assault victim fatally shoots assailant outside Westlake Center
A 25-year-old man who was fatally shot while attacking a stranger Saturday at Westlake Plaza had previously served time in prison for setting fire to a day-care center his mother operated out of her Phinney Ridge home.

Daniel Culotti was shot shortly after 11 a.m. by a 52-year-old man he was assaulting in an unprovoked attack, according to Seattle police. The victim of the assault was carrying a handgun and had a concealed-weapons permit, police said.

In July 2001, Culotti had attacked his mother, Melinda Culotti, inside the family's former residence on Palatine Avenue North near Woodland Park Zoo. He later returned and doused the floors inside the house with gasoline, setting the house on fire.

Culotti's mother, several child-care providers and seven children escaped unharmed.

Culotti later pleaded guilty to first-degree arson and was sentenced to just under two years in prison.

According to the state Department of Corrections, Culotti served approximately nine months in prison before he was released in Oct. 2002 with time off for good behavior. But jail records show that he was arrested three times this year for violating the conditions of his release into the community.

Melinda Culotti said she only learned of her son's death Monday and declined to comment when reached at her home in upstate New York.

Seattle police continue to investigate Saturday's shooting, and their findings will be turned over the prosecutor's office to decide whether charges are warranted. While police would not speculate on whether the shooting of Culotti was self-defense - saying the term is a legal finding that will be determined by prosecutors - the account offered by a police spokeswoman supports that possibility.

According to Seattle police, a woman called 911 at 11:08 a.m. Saturday to report that a man was acting erratically, yelling at passers-by and randomly assaulting strangers near Boren Avenue and Pine Street. Officers sent to the scene couldn't find the caller, the man or any victims, police spokeswoman Debra Brown said.

Twenty-three minutes later, police dispatchers radioed that shots had been fired at Fifth Avenue and Pine Street, she said. Moments earlier, witnesses told police, a man in his 20s apparently attacked the 52-year-old man, punching and kicking him until he fell to the sidewalk. The older man pulled out a .357-caliber Ruger revolver and fired one round, striking the man in the abdomen.



The older man "was not winning the fight" - the other man "just starts attacking him, he's on the ground and a shot is fired," Brown said, describing witnesses' accounts.

"It happened pretty fast. Probably by the time anybody thought to intervene, it was already over."

The 52-year-old had a concealed-weapons license and was in legal possession of the handgun, Brown said. Police have not released the man's name because he was not booked into jail.

"He was very cooperative," she said, noting the man waited for officers to arrive and turned over his weapon; he was interviewed by police and later released.

According to a police report on the incident, officers took into evidence the handgun, one spent shell casing and five live rounds of ammunition.

The names of the 52-year-old man and three witnesses were redacted from the report.

Culotti, who was not carrying identification, later died at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center. He was identified through fingerprint records.

His death has been ruled a homicide, according to James Apa, a spokesman for Public Health - Seattle & King County.

Though it will be up to King County prosecutors to decide, one local author who has written about Washington state's gun laws said the shooting appears to be a "textbook case of self-defense."

"This 52-year-old fellow was minding his own business, going through Westlake [Plaza] and this other guy jumps him, whacks him pretty good, gets him down on the ground and starts kicking him," said Dave Workman, author and senior editor for Gun Week, a national publication that reports on gun laws, regulatory changes and news from the firearms industry.

"Under those circumstances, the man on the ground was in fear of being severely beaten or beaten to death and so was justified in defending himself, including using lethal force."

According to state law, anyone who can legally possess a firearm also can apply for a concealed-weapons license. The law, however, typically restricts citizens from carrying guns onto school property and into jails and courthouses, bars or other places where alcohol is served, restricted areas in airports, and mental-health facilities.

State law not only allows people to defend themselves and their property from intruders in their homes but also from anyone who poses a threat of imminent bodily harm to themselves or others in any place they're legally allowed to be - whether it is a shopping mall, a grocery store or a city street.

Workman said that in determining whether a case fits the legal definition of self-defense, one must consider "the reasonable man doctrine" - that is, what any reasonable person would do under similar circumstances with the same amount of information.

In the past year or so, King County prosecutors have declined to file homicide charges in three cases in which self-defense was claimed, spokesman Dan Donohoe said.

He explained that from a legal standpoint, prosecutors must disprove a claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt for a jury to convict someone in such a case.

Seattle Times news researcher David Turim contributed to this report.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com

Copyright � 2006 The Seattle Times Company