Gun used in veteran’s suicide among those confiscated, sold

January 8, 2018 12:37 PM

MARTHA BELLISLE, Associated Press

Posted: January 8, 2018 12:37 PM

Updated: May 14, 2021 1:43 PM

by MARTHA BELLISLE, Associated Press

Remains found in Bothell homicide, person of interest sought — Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

After a 24-year-old Army veteran killed himself in 2014 using a gun previously confiscated by the Washington State Patrol, his mother told a police detective her son had spent time in a military prison, so he wasn’t supposed to have a weapon.

Yakima Police Detective Kasey Hampton searched Kyle Juhl’s name in the FBI’s criminal background check system, but he only found a DUI.

Juhl was sentenced to four years in military prison for using the drug ecstasy and drinking alcohol in 2009 and going AWOL for about two months in 2010, according to the Army’s court-martial order. Major Christopher Ophardt, an Army spokesman, said Juhl’s conviction and fingerprint records “were correctly submitted to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information System in 2010.” It’s not known why that information did not appear on the FBI’s database in 2014.

Problems with the transfer of and law enforcement access to military criminal records in FBI databases drew attention after the November mass shooting at a Texas church. The shooter had been court-martialed on domestic violence charges, but the Air Force didn’t share that information with the FBI, so he was able to buy a firearm.