Police: No text, call data recovered from suspected UW shooter's phone

The phone of the man suspected in a shooting on the University of Washington campus did not have any user-generated information when police searched it with a warrant, recently filed investigation documents show.

The man went to University of Washington Police headquarters the night of the shooting, January 20, and told them the shooting was self-defense.

He has not been charged.

The shooting happened about 8:25 p.m. in Red Square on the UW campus. About 300 people were protesting a planned Inauguration Day speech by controversial speaker Milo Yiannopoulos at Kane Hall. A 34-year-old man was shot. The suspected shooter is 28.

Police said the man shot was in a physical altercation before he was hit in the stomach. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

A search warrant related to the shooting was made public this week in a court file. It shows police received a judge’s permission to search the suspected shooter’s cell phone and get data about his texts and location.

The return says an investigator “was unable to see or recover any user generated information from this device. It appears that the device had gone through a factory reset of some sort prior to it being examined.”

Police can go to the cell phone’s carrier to get text and call data with a search warrant, and that’s been done in other unrelated investigations. It’s not clear if that's been done in this case.

Police asked for data from the phone from 6 p.m. Jan. 20 through 1:30 a.m. the following day. The search warrant affidavit requested communication regarding a possible crime, including calls, missed calls, chat sessions, instant messages, text messages, voice memos voice mail, SMS communications and internet usage.

University of Washington students and staff were alerted to a wanted suspect, and about 10:35 p.m. the suspected shooter and his wife walked into the University of Washington Police Department headquarters with their hands up, wanting to report that the shooting was self-defense.

KIRO 7 is not naming the suspect or the victim because they have not been charged.

The suspected shooter told police that the Glock handgun from the shooting and his cellphone were in his green Chevy Malibu outside. The vehicle was impounded, and the suspect and his wife were put into holding cells. Both wanted to talk with an attorney. Police described the conversation with the suspect’s wife and calm and polite.

Police have not described in detail what messages or data were recovered from the phone. The search warrant was served Tuesday, Jan. 24, four days after the shooting.

In late January, an attorney for the man who was shot said he was improving and breathing on his own. Follow the links below to read previous coverage of the UW shooting.

Jan. 22: Man shot on UW campus during protest is improving, breathing on his own

Jan. 24: UW shooting victim wants 'constructive dialogue' with man who shot him

Jan. 24: Report: Alleged UW shooter sent Facebook message to Milo Yiannopoulos before gunfire

Cox Media Group