A rioter was captured on live news snatching an AR-15 rifle from an abandoned police car during riots in Seattle Saturday, but was quickly disarmed seconds later.
Riots have engulfed many major U.S. cities amidst coronavirus lock downs and following George Floyd’s death in police custody. (RELATED: RIOTERS DESCEND ON CITIES ACROSS AMERICA TO EXACT VENGEANCE OVER GEORGE FLOYD’S DEATH)
The news clip, from KOMO ABC 4, shows a rioter snatching a police “patrol rifle” from a destroyed Seattle Police Department car, only to be disarmed seconds later by someone else.
Follow up video from the news #seattleprotest pic.twitter.com/uDkxGP3VCJ
— Jason Lynch (@206Lynch) May 31, 2020
KOMO ABC 4 could not confirm the identity of the person who disarmed the rioter, but confirmed “it was not an SBD Officer.”
“We have just confirmed from police that weapon actually was taken by a protester from the back of a patrol vehicle. This is according to SPD, it’s a patrol rifle. The man that you saw there come in there and regain that control of that patrol rifle took it back.”
While the identity of the man is still unknown, the man is “former special forces” and was guarding a Q13 FOX news team, according to a tweet by reporter Brandi Kruse. After getting the news team to safety, and accounting for the first AR-15, the man “acted on his own” to disarm the rioter with the second AR-15 as seen on KOMO ABC4 news, according to Kruse.
We have video of them firing one of them and were there when it happened. Witnessed it all. They shouted for people to “clear the block” then fired and everyone ran. #Q13FOX https://t.co/bz42bbxowA pic.twitter.com/krHGrekZFk
— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) May 31, 2020
Thread:
I want to answer some questions about the AR-15 debacle here in one thread so I don’t have to try to answer them individually. And I will also say that @SeattlePD needs to answer for why these weapons were left in police cars in the middle of the riot zone.
— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) May 31, 2020
“At this point, we understand all weapons are accounted for,” the KOMO ABC 4 news anchor said.