By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Charges of first- and second-degree assault have been filed against a violent repeat offender after he was shot in a gunfight with Seattle police officers, and now it has been revealed he is wanted in Kansas on an active warrant for rape and other crimes.
Viewer reaction to a report at Seattle’s KOMO News—the local ABC affiliate—included this observation:
“Two questions to our D state legislators – 1) Why didn’t any of our new gun control laws keep this convicted felon from having that gun? 2) Will passing more gun control laws keep guys like him from having them?”
The suspect is identified as 62-year-old Christopher Michael Bowman, who drew a gun on a police officer and fired, at which point that officer and two others returned fire. Bowman suffered several wounds but survived to be transported to Harborview Medical Center. Making matters worse, the shooting occurred near an elementary school.
According to Law Enforcement Today, Bowman has quite a history. He was “convicted of rape, aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, criminal possession of a firearm and trafficking contraband in a correctional institution,” all in Kansas. In neighboring Missouri, he was convicted of first-degree robbery.
It is not clear how he came to be in the Pacific Northwest, but he was once again in possession of a firearm—a crime under state and federal law—and Evergreen State gun control laws, grown increasingly restrictive over the past 12 years, did not prevent him from being armed.
There is a bizarre twist to the story, according to KOMO and KING News—the local NBC affiliate—which both reported that a woman called police to report she was being followed. KOMO and Law Enforcement Today added this detail: the woman was Bowman’s 18-year-old ex-wife.
The incident was captured on the body cams of all three officers involved. A female officer was injured by shrapnel from one of the suspect’s shots.
Bowman was in critical condition when taken to the hospital, all reports said.
Washington Democrats have passed several increasingly restrictive gun control laws in recent years, all on the premise they would keep guns out of the wrong hands.
