Man Indicted For Showing Gun

A young man who authorities say brandished a handgun at Mead High School faces a federal indictment accusing him of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Sean Allen Patterson was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury after an investigation by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms.

The case was referred to ATF agents after a county prosecutor realized Patterson could only be charged with a misdemeanor in state court.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Skibbie said Patterson has five felony convictions since 1992, including three for theft.

The 22-year-old Spokane man also has convictions for auto theft and trafficking in stolen property.

Patterson was arrested last year by sheriff’s deputies shortly after three youths - none of them students - came onto the Mead High campus May 19.

Patterson allegedly walked into the school cafeteria and threatened a student before spilling the victim’s lunch on him.

When the victim and a crowd of Mead students followed Patterson and his two friends out the door, Patterson is alleged to have brandished a .25 semiautomatic handgun.

Skibbie said Patterson is accused of pointing the gun at the victim and a young woman. He shouted at her: “You’re going to die, bitch.”

The assailants got into their car and drove away before sheriff’s deputies arrived.

The driver of the car tossed the handgun out of the vehicle a short distance away.

When the gun was recovered by deputies, they found Patterson’s fingerprints on the weapon, Skibbie said.

, DataTimes