TULALIP — There is no record in state or federal criminal databases that Raymond Lee Fryberg Jr. was prohibited from buying the Beretta handgun his son used to shoot five classmates at Marysville Pilchuck High School.
Fryberg was the subject of a domestic-violence protection order issued in 2002 by the Tulalip Tribal Court. That court order should have prevented him from purchasing the handgun at the Cabela’s store here in 2013, according to criminal records officials.
Investigators said Tuesday that the gun recovered inside the high school cafeteria, next to the teenager shooter, belonged to Fryberg, 42. His son, Jaylen, 15, shot five other freshmen before committing suicide. Four students were killed and one boy survived.
Federal law prohibits people with certain domestic-violence protection orders from owning or buying guns.
Neither records of Fryberg’s 2002 court order, nor his violation of that court order in 2012, are found in the Washington Crime Information Center or National Crime Information Center databases, according to Heather Anderson, a manager with the Washington State Patrol’s criminal records division.
Those databases are used to do background checks on people who purchase firearms and are intended to flag potential buyers who are banned from possessing one.
“From what we can tell, there’s nothing,” Anderson said Tuesday.
Since 2000, the State Patrol has been working with Washington tribes to get information about protection orders from their courts into the state and federal criminal databases, Anderson said.
“It’s not mandatory for tribes to do it,” she said.
In Snohomish County, tribes can send the orders to the Snohomish County Superior Court Clerk’s Office. The protection order is then sent to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office to enter the information into the state database.
“To my knowledge that didn’t happen in this case,” Anderson said.
It has only been in recent years that the county has been filing those orders on behalf of the Tulalip Tribal Court, she said.
Tulalip Tribes officials declined to comment about whether the court records of 2002 or 2012 had been shared with the county clerk.
“It is not our policy to comment on an active investigation, and at this time, we have no further information to share,” Tribal Chairman Herman Williams said in a statement.
A spokesman with Cabela’s said store staff complied with federal regulations, including doing a background check on Fryberg. Court records show that Fryberg purchased the gun on Jan. 11, 2013, and returned 12 days later to pick it up.
Fryberg was arrested Tuesday and charged with unlawful gun possession in U.S. District Court in Seattle. He is accused of lying on federal paperwork to purchase five guns between January 2013 and July 2014 at Cabela’s.
Federal prosecutors allege that Fryberg did not check a box indicating that he was subject to a court order restraining him “from harassing, stalking or threatening your child or an intimate partner or child of such partner.”
In 2002, his then-girlfriend sought the order from the tribal court, alleging physical abuse and threats. Fryberg was found guilty of violating the order in 2012.
Congress in 1994 amended federal gun laws to ban domestic violence perpetrators and those under court restraining orders from owning or buying guns, University of Washington law professor Mary D. Fan said.
“The amendments reflect scientific findings that domestic violence perpetrators pose a particularly heightened risk of using a gun to kill someone,” she said.
The databases have expanded over the years as law enforcement agencies have improved their reporting.
“The data is only as good and comprehensive” as the state’s willingness and resources to submit information, she said.
Anderson said that the State Patrol continues to work with tribes to expand information sharing.
“We’re making strides,” she said.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
