Death in gun shop believed a suicide

Police concluded yesterday that the second shooting death in less than a week by a customer at a Bellevue gun shop and shooting range was an apparent suicide.

An employee at Wade's Eastside Gun Shop discovered a 30-year-old Kirkland woman lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head about 9:25 p.m. Wednesday.

Police were waiting to release her name.

According to police, she had rented a gun from the gun shop and was alone on the range at the time of the gunshot.

"It is our belief she went there with the intent to commit suicide," said Bellevue police spokeswoman Marcia Harnden.

Last Friday, a 49-year-old Issaquah man was found in the bathroom at Wade's with a gunshot wound to the chest in what police believe was a suicide, although that investigation has not concluded.

Georg Frey had rented a 9 mm semiautomatic Glock from the shop and had been shooting on the range before his death. Police later learned that Frey and his company, NuWest Inc., were under investigation for financial scams totaling more than $10 million.

Whether Wednesday's shooting was a "copy-cat" suicide is still unknown, said Harnden. The earlier shooting death was reported in at least one local newspaper.

Shop owner Wade Gaughran declined to comment yesterday.

There were no witnesses to the shooting, but police reviewed a videotape from the shooting range.

At least three other shooting incidents, including two deaths, have brought police to the gun shop in recent years. In April 1997, a woman accidentally shot and killed a 24-year-old Redmond man when she couldn't control the recoil of a large-caliber revolver.

Two months later a man died in an apparent suicide at the range, and that same year a woman shot herself in the thigh during a gun-safety class.

Wade's, at 13570 N.E. Bel-Red Road, draws hundreds of shooters each week for classes, target practice and competitions.

Bellevue police investigated the shop in 1996 after a customer complained about lax safety. However, police learned they had no jurisdiction over the facility unless a crime occurs, said Harnden.

Nor does any other government agency. The Department of Labor & Industries deals only with employee-related safety, not customer safety. And although King County does have an ordinance outlining specific safety requirements, it applies only to unincorporated parts of the county.

This is a time of year when suicides tend to rise, said Harnden.

"It's very important for people to recognize and not dismiss red flags," she said. "There's probably nothing the Wade's people could do to stop this."

Police are trying to help employees at the gun shop deal with the past week's events, she said.

"They're victims of this as well," she said. "They're in their jobs to help people who want to learn and recreate. They're not in it to clean blood off the floor."