WA - Open carry and anti-terror agents come to my door, why?

Rufus Nusto · Oct 9, 2012

Hello, a friend of mine was stopped a few days ago by police (in his yard, as he got home) and /disarmed/detained because someone had called them saying he was brandishing his gun. They provided no evidence but handcuffed him and held him for almost 1/2 hour even though he willingly showed proper ID. They said it was because they "didn't know" if he could legally carry the gun, even taking his picture without asking saying it was "just for his own collection". Now this is all kinds of wrong in my eyes but it doesn't stop there. This morning (at 6 AM) "Anti-Terror Agents" showed up at his door stating that they "have a picture of him hiding in the bushes near a public health building, wearing camo" and wanted an email to send it to so he could identify himself.
They also kept trying to forcefully enter his home, never stopping with the strange questions. I know this is harassment because I have had many run-ins with law enforcement involving one or more guns on my person and have never been asked to disarm. My question is, has anyone had a similar experience or any info that might help? If it happened once it will only happen more unless it is stopped for good.

EMNofSeattle · Oct 9, 2012

Rufus Nusto said:
Hello, a friend of mine was stopped a few days ago by police (in his yard, as he got home) and /disarmed/detained because someone had called them saying he was brandishing his gun. They provided no evidence but handcuffed him and held him for almost 1/2 hour even though he willingly showed proper ID. They said it was because they "didn't know" if he could legally carry the gun, even taking his picture without asking saying it was "just for his own collection". Now this is all kinds of wrong in my eyes but it doesn't stop there. This morning (at 6 AM) "Anti-Terror Agents" showed up at his door stating that they "have a picture of him hiding in the bushes near a public health building, wearing camo" and wanted an email to send it to so he could identify himself.
They also kept trying to forcefully enter his home, never stopping with the strange questions. I know this is harassment because I have had many run-ins with law enforcement involving one or more guns on my person and have never been asked to disarm. My question is, has anyone had a similar experience or any info that might help? If it happened once it will only happen more unless it is stopped for good.

OK..... a few questions here

Where did this happen? What agency detained him? Was he cited? for what if yes?

"Anti-terror agents"? From what agency? federal or state?

Which public health building?

WAS HE IN FACT IN THE BUSHES WEARING CAMMO?

This actually kinda sounds like trolling to me....

any info that might help?

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

Tucker6900 · Oct 9, 2012

EMNofSeattle said:
OK..... a few questions here

Where did this happen? What agency detained him? Was he cited? for what if yes?

"Anti-terror agents"? From what agency? federal or state?

Which public health building?

WAS HE IN FACT IN THE BUSHES WEARING CAMMO?

This actually kinda sounds like trolling to me....

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

Without more information, from a more credible source, I will have to agree with the emboldened word above.

Citizen · Oct 9, 2012

No offense, Nusto.

But, we've had too many such reports from first-timers that turned out to be false. Now, some were true. But, many were not.

So, expect skepticism for either yourself, your friend, or both.

If police detained him in his yard because of a report about him brandishing, there will be a 911 call recording, radio traffic recordings, and police field contact report. If you or your friend will obtain those under your state's freedom-of-information law and post them here (after blanking out personally identifying information, of course) it will go a long ways towards establishing credibility. This is important. If your report is true, those cops need to be handled.

In the meantime, welcom to OCDO!!

KYGlockster · Oct 9, 2012

Tucker6900 said:
Without more information, from a more credible source, I will have to agree with the emboldened word above.

This is not true. Any "agents" that would be investigating terrorism would CERTAINLY NOT express to a possible suspect that they have "evidence" concerning him/her. They wouldn't ask him for an E-mail address so they could send a photograph to him/her so that he could identify himself! This story seems like someone developing a scenario in their mind and acting like it happened to someone to see if someone else would bite. This is NOT how criminal investigators conduct themselves, and this would never happen.

Rufus Nusto · Oct 9, 2012

Well just to update this, yes this did happen, yes "Anti-Terror Unit" agents did show up and say exactly what I typed, and no he was not doing what they said he did. On top of "just sayin'", we actually made it somewhere by now and have contacted the agency "Spokane Anti-terror Task Force" and found the right person to talk to. Now they don't want to give up any evidence and are basically backing down. For something this extreme the response was overtly poor coming from an open carry forum. By the way this happened near downtown Spokane WA. Sometimes weird stories are the scariest and most true.

Rufus Nusto · Oct 9, 2012

Citizen said:
No offense, Nusto.

But, we've had too many such reports from first-timers that turned out to be false. Now, some were true. But, many were not.

So, expect skepticism for either yourself, your friend, or both.

If police detained him in his yard because of a report about him brandishing, there will be a 911 call recording, radio traffic recordings, and police field contact report. If you or your friend will obtain those under your state's freedom-of-information law and post them here (after blanking out personally identifying information, of course) it will go a long ways towards establishing credibility. This is important. If your report is true, those cops need to be handled.

In the meantime, welcom to OCDO!!

Thanks man we are well underway, and you best bet I'll be back to report how this goes. Spokane Wa cops are horrible, sheriffs mostly are "nice".

EMNofSeattle · Oct 9, 2012

Rufus Nusto said:
Well just to update this, yes this did happen, yes "Anti-Terror Unit" agents did show up and say exactly what I typed, and no he was not doing what they said he did. On top of "just sayin'", we actually made it somewhere by now and have contacted the agency "Spokane Anti-terror Task Force" and found the right person to talk to.

A quick web search has turned up that the Spokane Police Department has no "anti-terror task force" in fact their website in quite expansive and lists all the units in the department

http://www.spokanepolice.org/default.aspx

Did they happen to look/act like the people at 1:57 in this video?

[video=youtube;Z-1dhxFt_Xw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-1dhxFt_Xw[/video]

Fallschirjmäger · Oct 9, 2012

I, personally wouldn't have shown them any "I.D." but that's a decision every person has to make for himself. I'd also be on the phone to my attorney as soon as the detention ended, and they'd better hope they had RAS to make the detention in the first place.

Their ignorance, curiosity, or lack of knowledge isn't my concern and I'm not legally obligated to satisfy their curiosity. As long as the picture isn't for commercial purposes the police, or even you, are free to take all the pictures of anything that can be seen and is in 'public.'

"Don't y'all all Federal boys have yer own color printers? My neighbor Vera May has one she gots at da WallMart, makes nice purty pictures for just 49.99, she musta give me near a hunnert pictures of some dang ol' cat a-hangin' from a branch, "Hang in there, baby" or sumsuch nonsense.
Say, I could use some non-glossy in wallet size, maybe a few 8-by-10's, what other sizes y'all gots?"

There's a reason I have a screen door/storm door combination at the front and one of those metal loops that only lets the door open a certain distance unless it's forced. They won't keep someone from busting down the door, but they can't easily be bypassed without leaving traces of a violent and tumultuous entry.

As everyone has said, if the incident occurred then there is a paper trail, and we'll be more than happy to indulge you when either the public records are either produced or we have enough information to request them. I'm not against spending a few dollars for an Open Records Act request.

EMNofSeattle · Oct 9, 2012

Well....

It appears there may be a federal deal

http://www.fbi.gov/seattle/about-us/our-partnerships/partners
The Inland Northwest Joint Terrorism Task Force disrupts international and domestic terrorism activity throughout eastern Washington and northern Idaho. This JTTF is unique in that it fuses the efforts, and combines the talent and resources, of the FBI’s Seattle and Salt Lake City field divisions.

However I'm willing to wager that if this even happened, which I still doubt, that it would be unrelated to the incident of OC. The Feds don't get involved in that kind of thing, I've never heard of FBI agents following up on an MWAG call conducted by local police.... ever unless they found drugs or something there is no way the Feds care enough.

And I'm certain they would not tell you what evidence they had against, that would only serve to compromise whatever investigation they're conducting. In fact it's likely that if you are a suspect they might not even inform you you're a suspect until it's time to give you a fashion upgrade around the wrists....

We need more, who did you contact, who does he work for? the name you gave us is a not a real division of Spokane police or Sheriff and as I posted, nor the FBI.

What is the contact information for the agency you contacted?

any media or recordings/video?

As far as the "poor response" I'm sure anti's regularily browse this forum and cache all threads and replies, I can't specifically prove it, but people have been really jacked up by their internet postings later when it turns out someone is watching and diligantly saving, it would look bad online if everyone goes nuts as soon as an unsubstatiated story is posted.

deanf · Oct 11, 2012

I know this is harassment because I have had many run-ins with law enforcement involving one or more guns on my person and have never been asked to disarm.

"Did you walk to work or pack your lunch?"

WA - Open carry and anti-terror agents come to my door, why?

Rufus Nusto

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EMNofSeattle

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Tucker6900

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Citizen

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KYGlockster

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Rufus Nusto

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Rufus Nusto

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EMNofSeattle

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Fallschirjmäger

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EMNofSeattle

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deanf

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