Police Shoot Pedophile Dead During Covert Sting Operation

(Daily360.com) The Seattle Police unloaded more than a dozen shots during a pedophile sting operation and caused death to the suspect.

The 67-year old man went to the DoubleTree Suites and knocked on the door. He was expecting to meet two young girls, aged seven and 11. He had his gun ready when the police met him at the door. One police officer jumped to try to disarm the suspect. They wrestled on the ground and a shot was fired that grazed an officer’s leg.

After that, one of the other officers shot two bullets into the man and he dropped to the ground. They shot more than twelve bullets into the suspect as he laid on the ground. The body cam footage has been released and is streaming online.

Eric Wehrmeister was a witness to the incident as he was staying in another room at the hotel. He said he saw someone firing a gun and he was running. He was grateful that the shots were not fired towards his room and that the situation was resolved without harming innocent bystanders.

The Seattle Police Chief, Adrian Diaz, stated that virtual crimes against minors raised by 67% from 2022 to 2023. He also said that sting operations of this nature are “unpredictable” and can escalate quickly. The sting operation was performed by the Washington State Internet Crimes Against Children (WSICAC).

An Axios report from March states that tips about crimes against children have increased exponentially since 2019. The WSICAC has reported an average number of 1,156 tips per month in 2023. That is between five and six times higher than the 200 reports the agency received per month in 2019.

In February, a fundraiser was announced to provide the WSICAC with more sophisticated software that will help them identify more child predators and bring them to justice. The Seattle Pollice Foundation is behind the fundraising effort. A representative for the foundation said that cities, states, and counties are currently unable to budget for this software, but the increase in child predatory crimes indicates a high level of need for the software.