Police fire on developmentally disabled man waving LEGO gun

In news that proves again that taking your life-size LEGO guns outdoors isn’t such a great idea, a sheriff’s deputy in Woodinville, Washington (near Seattle) fired on a man waving what appeared to be a gun.

Here’s the AP story in its entirety:

King County Sheriff Steve Strachan says he’s grateful a deputy did not injure a man who waved a gun made of Lego toy building bricks.

The deputy had responded to a report of a man waving a gun at passing cars Thursday in Woodinville. The man raised what appeared to be a gun at the deputy who fired several shots.

The suspect dropped to the ground unhurt. Deputies discovered the gun was a toy and the man was a resident of a nearby home for developmentally disabled adults.

Via The Seattle Times.

Another Times story adds, “The man, who deputies have encountered before, has a ‘fascination with guns’ and had made the handgun out of black Lego blocks.”

Thankfully, this story ended without injury, but this type of situation is why the Seattle Police Department influenced the absence of realistic LEGO guns at BrickCon…

UPDATE: Local TV station KOMO has an updated story with pictures of the gun.

LEGO
Photo by King County Sheriff’s Office

3 comments on “Police fire on developmentally disabled man waving LEGO gun

  1. chalous

    Sadly this is another case where “LEGO” is being abused as a generic word instead of a brand. These are not in fact “LEGO” bricks. They are (at least) mostly the cheap knock offs. You can see for yourself looking at the bricks in the pic. Not like the bricks did anything wrong. Its just one of those incorrect details as a fan of LEGO Im picky about.

    Police cant afford to take chances (real vs no real in tense situations) so their actions are entirely valid here, glad no one was hurt.

    My 2 cents worth. All well.

  2. Creative Anarchy

    I’m more troubled that someone with a disability that seems to have a history of this behavior wasn’t supervised. The police shouldn’t be in charge of looking after mentally handicapped people but this is the way of things when we cut funding to programs for the handicapped.

    I’m also a little put off by the idea that police may have pressured Brick Con into not featuring realistic gun builds. They aren’t my cup of tea but they are respectable modelling and no more a threat to police than a gun carved out of wood or glued together from scrap. A lego gun didn’t cause the problem in Woodinville. A person without good sense did. Implying that AFOLs may cause police a problem by building and displaying Lego guns is not indifferent than calling us mentally handicapped in my book.

  3. dateman

    I’m sorry but how is this more of threat than a air-soft or BB gun which look way more realistic…media just likes looking for a scapegoat…this time its Lego…even tho it isn’t Lego and the real problem is a poor guy with a mental disability.

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