Raymond Lee Fryberg
ABC
The father of the Washington state teenager who fatally shot four high school classmates and then himself in October pleaded not guilty in federal court on Thursday to five new firearms charges.
Raymond Lee Fryberg's lawyer, John Henry Brown, called the new charges "ridiculous" and said federal prosecutors were charging him for guns that he voluntarily turned over to the police under the terms of his release. He also said the state of Washington had given Fryberg a concealed weapons permit in 2013, and was never told he can't possess a gun.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ye-Ting Woo disputed that claim after Thursday's hearing in U.S. District Court. She said five of the guns were found when police searched his home in March, before his arrest. She said the handgun used by Fryberg's son was taken by police after the shooting and the four others were identified by sales records at Cabela's, where he bought the guns.
Fryberg remains out of custody awaiting his trial, which is scheduled for Aug. 31.
Fryberg was charged on March 30 with one count of illegally possessing the gun that his son, 15-year-old Jaylen Fryberg, used in the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting that left one wounded and five dead, including the shooter. He pleaded not guilty to that charge the next day.
The original complaint said Fryberg was the subject a permanent domestic violence protection order issued by the Tulalip Tribal Court in 2002 and was prohibited from possessing firearms. The complaint said when Fryberg bought the gun at Cabela's, he filled out an Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives form and answered "no" when asked if he was the subject of a "court order restraining you from harassing, stalking, or threatening your child or an intimate partner."