Police arrested a man armed with a stolen gun, a pellet gun and a baseball bat after he confronted two other men outside a mosque Tuesday in the Northgate neighborhood.
The two victims were reportedly standing in the parking lot of a mosque at 15th Avenue NE and Northgate Way around 1 PM when they saw the suspect striking trees with a baseball bat as he walked toward them. One of the victims also noticed a silver handgun in the suspect’s waistband.
The suspect asked them “where they were from,” according to the victims, and argued with them when they said they were from the United States.
The suspect then dropped his bat to the ground, pulled the silver gun out of his waistband, and began waving it around. Both victims walked away from the suspect, who smashed a passenger-side mirror of a parked car as he fled the scene.
Officers found the suspect sitting on a park bench at nearby Victory Creek Park and took him into custody.
Police found he was carrying a baseball bat and a silver replica handgun–actually a very realistic-looking pellet gun–as well as a very real pistol, which was reported stolen in Lakewood.
Officers arrested the 28-year-old for property damage, assault, and malicious harassment–Washington’s hate crime satute–and booked him into the King County Jail.
No one was injured in the incident.