Body cam footage shows the moment a suspected child pedophile pulls out a gun on officers during undercover sting operation

SEATTLE, WA - The Seattle Police Department (SPD) has officially released body camera footage showing the moment an SPD officer had to use his duty weapon after an alleged sex offender pulled a gun on him and other officers during a string operation in which the suspect thought he was meeting up with two underage girls. 

According to Fox News, the 67-year-old suspect arrived at a DoubleTree Suites Hotel in Tukwila at approximately 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17th, under the impression that he was meeting two very young girls, ages seven and 11. Police body camera footage show the man arriving at the hotel wearing a jacket and carrying a bag.

He knocked on a hotel room door, expecting to meet the underage girls and instead was met by multiple SPD officers with the Washington State Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce who were undercover and waiting for him. As the officers opened the door, the suspect pulled out a gun. Video shows one of the officers trying to take the firearm away from the suspect. 

The gun went off during the struggle and hit one of the officer's legs. The other officers can then be seen unloading several rounds, killing the suspect at the scene. One officer could be heard saying, "Shots fired, shots fired. Suspect down." The officer who was grazed by the bullet in his leg is expected to recover. 

In a statement, SPD Chief Adrian Diaz said, "For our officers, these situations are dangerous, unpredictable, and can escalate rapidly." According to data provided by Diaz, internet crimes against children are up 67 percent from 2022 to 2023. 

According to KING5, Eric Wehmeister, a man who was staying at the hotel at the time of the incident, said that he barricaded himself in the hotel kitchen when he heard the gunfire. He said, "I heard a loud pop. I assumed it might have been maintenance. Seconds later, another pop and after that, a rapid succession of gunfire."

He added, "I turned around and saw someone shooting downward into the floor and that's when I made a run for the kitchen into the corridor and barricaded in one of the offices." 

As of this writing, it is unclear what the suspect had been accused of doing or what led police to set up the undercover operation. Nicole Parker, a former FBI special agent, told Fox News Digital that the officers had to react to the fast-moving situation in a split second. She said, "Praise to these cops at the Seattle Police Department for their quick reflexes and neutralizing the threat immediately so no one else was harmed. Sadly, in light of countless recent line-of-duty law enforcement officer deaths, we know it doesn't always work out this way."

Parker said that child pedophile offenders are often the most dangerous criminals and can put police in life-threatening situations. She added, "They know when they are caught, they're going away for a long time and they have nothing to lose." She noted that two of her former FBI special agent colleagues were shot dead while executing a search warrant for a child predator three years ago.

She said that the moment police feel their lifes are in danger, they are trained to react, adding, "An officer does not have to wait to be fired at before deadly force is justified. Officers apply deadly force until the subject no longer presents a threat and in this instance, it appears that is exactly what they did. This was a lawful use of deadly force."