SEATTLE — A federal judge on Thursday set conditions allowing for the release of Raymond Lee Fryberg Jr., who is accused of illegally obtaining the gun which his son used to kill four classmates in an October school shooting.
Fryberg, 42, of Tulalip, was arrested Tuesday morning. He appeared before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler in Seattle on Thursday.
Federal prosecutors allege that Fryberg unlawfully owned the Beretta PX4 Storm handgun because there is a permanent order banning him from possessing firearms.
On Oct. 24, his son, 15-year-old Jaylen Fryberg, used the Beretta to kill four other students and himself in a Marysville Pilchuck High School cafeteria. Andrew Fryberg, 15, and Zoe Galasso, Shaylee Chuckulnaskit and Gia Soriano, all 14, were killed. Nate Hatch, 14, was critically wounded but survived.
Prosecutors allege that Fryberg lied on forms when he bought the gun at Cabella’s, saying that he was not subject to a protection order.
Theiler set several conditions Fryberg must abide. Among other things, he must surrender his concealed weapons permit, must remain in the state and can have no contact with witnesses in the case, said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle.
Fryberg also can’t be in homes with firearms, ammunition or dangerous weapons.
He is being represented by Seattle defense attorney John Henry Browne.
A search warrant on his home Tuesday turned up several rifles, Langlie said.
According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, in 2002 Fryberg’s then-girlfriend asked the Tulalip Tribal Court for an order of protection, alleging that he had threatened her and had physically assaulted her.
The protection order was made permanent and had no expiration date. But that information never made it into the state’s database for gun purchases.
In September 2012, Fryberg pleaded “no contest” to violating the protection order. He was fined and placed on probation for one year.
Less than four months later, he allegedly went to the Cabela’s Sporting Goods store on the Tulalip reservation and purchased the Beretta and, over time, four other firearms.
Fryberg filled out forms for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms &Explosives stating that he was not the subject of any court order restraining him from harassing, stalking or threatening an intimate partner or the child of a partner.
The form states that anyone subject to such an order is prohibited from purchasing a firearm.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
