Originally posted 1/1 at 9:26 pm
The 22-year-old man who was shot and killed by police this morning while wearing a Nazi uniform was, according to his friends, a World War II buff and German Culture major at the University of Washington.
According to one of UW senior Miles Murphy's friends, Murphy collected World War II memorabilia and participated in recreations of battles. "I think the Nazi thing is being blown out of proportion," the friend says. "They reenact battles and stuff. [He wasn't] modeling himself after Hitler."
Another of the Murphy's friends—who attended a memorial service for Murphy earlier this evening— says she believes the police did not give Murphy adequate time to drop his gun—apparently filled with blanks—before he was shot. "He was in no way affiliated with Nazis," she says. "He was the type of guy who...had goofy hobbies. He was a history buff and his interest was shown in the way he dressed."
Indeed, Murphy was featured in a UW Daily fashion article last summer, where he was described as looking like "a figure straight out of a photo taken from World War II."
Murphy's Myspace page contains a number of photos of him in German and Russian military uniforms and lists his greatest fears as large dogs, "drug lords" and the police.
Photo via Murphy's Myspace page.