In June of 2014, a student at Troutdale, Oregon’s Reynolds High School brought a rifle, eight magazines, and hundreds rounds of ammunition to school with the obvious intention of carrying out a high school massacre.

The would-be mass killer murdered one student who stumbled into him as he was about to put his plan into motion, and wounded a teacher before armed school resource officers exchanged gunfire with him. Gunfire from the SROs drove the would be mass killer into a small bathroom, where he committed suicide.

Now the brother of the would-be mass killer*, wants the rifle used to murder 15-year-old Emilio Hoffman returned to him, along with the other items the murderer took from him with the intention of carrying out a mass attack.

A Multnomah County Circuit Court judge will hold a first hearing Tuesday to consider a motion to return the rifle used to kill a 15-year-old Reynolds High School student and wound a teacher to the shooter’s brother.

Lucas P_____ filed a motion with the court on August 13 asking that the rifle, ammunition and other items be returned to him by the Troutdale Police Department and the state of Oregon.

“These items belong to me, and I have never been charged with any offense connected herewith,” P_____ says in an affidavit.

Just minutes after arriving at school on June 10, 2014, J___ P_____ used his brother’s rifle to fatally wound Emilio Hoffman in the Reynolds High locker room.

J____ P_____, a 15-year-old freshman, brought two guns, nine ammunition magazines and a large knife to the school, apparently prepared to shoot many more. After shooting Hoffman, P_____ shot and wounded a teacher before retreating to a restroom stall and shooting himself.

In addition to the murderer’s brother wanting his rifle back, the father of both boys wants authorities to return the .25 ACP pistol that J___ P_____ used to commit suicide, though the pistol was not part of the motion.

Investigations into how J____ P_____ obtained the firearms used in the attack suggests that both Lucus  P_____ and his father Michael P_____ had secured the firearms prior to the attack, and J____ P_____ had defeated their security measures. Lucas P_____’s Daniel Defense DDM4 has been locked in a Pelican gun case, and the handgun J____ P_____committed suicide with had been locked in his father’s bedroom.

Neither the brother nor the father were charged with a crime.

It is not terribly unusual for firearms used in homicide investigations to be released from evidence in many jurisdictions, and the rightful owner of the firearm is typically allowed to regain possession of those items if they so desire them.

Most of the time, however, these firearms go unclaimed, as the families don’t want to regain possession of a firearm that has been used to accidentally or intentionally take a life. These items can sometimes sit unclaimed in evidence lockers for decades before being destroyed or auctioned off as unclaimed property.

What makes this particular instance unusual is that the brother of the killer has gone so far as to sue to have the murder weapon, the magazines, unused ammunition, and a plate carrier returned to him just a little over a year after the murder/suicide too place.

* Bearing Arms does doe not publish the names of spree or mass killers, whether they succeed or fail.