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Marysville police use new state crime prevention law to seize guns from man in mental crisis

By Joanna Small
By Joanna Small

Marysville police seized nearly a dozen guns from a man whose family believed he was having a mental crisis using what’s called an "extreme risk protection order."

It’s a relatively new Washington State law that families and police can use as a crime prevention tool.

“I was asked if I felt like this had stopped a homicide from happening and we don’t know.

Potentially it could have but we don’t know,” said Marysville police Cmdr. Mark Thomas.

Now he says they’ll never have to find out.

In the early March incident family members told officers that man had a number of legally purchased guns—but that he may have become a danger to himself or others.

Police placed the man on an involuntary psychiatric hold and recovered his 11 guns.

“No crime was ever committed during this case, his actions and access to weapons made the family concerned for their safety,” explained Thomas.

Police utilized an extreme risk protection order (ERPO), passed by voters in 2016.

It enables officers to keep the guns and stop the purchase of new ones for up to a year—if approved by a judge.

“An ERPO allows us to be more proactive in our approach rather than reactive but also respecting the rights of gun owners,” Thomas told us.

It does the same for families; they can file the order and drop it off at any court—just like a standard protection order.

We’ve seen the powerful impact proactive family members have on public safety.

In February, an Everett teen was charged with attempted murder for making plans to do a mass shooting at his Everett High School.

It was his grandmother who reported him to police.

That case was criminal; the Marysville case is not and may never have been but again —

“It’s kind of rather be safe than sorry in those circumstances,” concluded Thomas.

Other departments across the state and in the North Sound have used the extreme risk protection order including Bothell and Monroe police.

There is no one agency tracking the number served though.

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