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Federal Prosecutor, a Prominent Gun-Control Advocate, Shot to Death in Seattle Home

By Peggy Andersen Associated Press Writer

Published: Oct 12, 2001

SEATTLE (AP) - A federal prosecutor who headed a prominent gun control group in his spare time was shot in his home and died early Friday. Thomas C. Wales, 49, died about 1:15 a.m. Friday at Harborview Medical Center. He had been shot in the neck and the side late Thursday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Details about the shooting were sketchy. No arrests had been made, police spokesman Mark Jamieson said.

Wales was a member of the fraud unit in the U.S. attorney's office here, specializing in prosecution of banking and business crime, spokesman Lawrence Lincoln said.

He also was board president of Seattle-based Washington Ceasefire, a gun-control group that sponsored a failed initiative in 1997 that would have would have required handgun owners to undergo safety training and use trigger locks on their weapons.

The National Rifle Association mounted a $2 million campaign against Initiative 676, which had the support of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and other prominent state residents.

"We don't know who killed Tom, or why, but we know that our community has lost a kind, compassionate man and ... our nation has lost a courageous leader in the movement against gun violence," Trevor Neilson, vice president of the Ceasefire board, said in a statement.

Federal agencies were assisting Seattle police in the investigation. Officials with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms declined to comment.

According to The Seattle Times, neighbors in the wealthy Queen Anne Hill neighborhood reported hearing shots shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday.

Neighbor Tom Olsby said Wales' wife, Elizabeth, a former Seattle School Board member, was away visiting family in New England.

On Sept. 30, Washington Ceasefire planted thousands of daffodils in a popular city park in remembrance of people who had died from gun violence.

In a phone interview, Neilson said Wales "had a wonderful sense of humor and was someone who had a lifelong belief that if people work to make social change, the world can become a better place."

Michael T. Barnes, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, called the death "a terrible loss to our movement."

"Although we do not yet know the motives for the shooting, we are angered by the murder of this true visionary," Barnes said in a statement.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001