Article from NYPost.com By Josh Saul
Photo: Spencer Burnett
Maybe he thought it was bring-your-gun-to-court day.
A convicted killer scheduled to appear in Brooklyn Supreme Court on charges that he broke a man’s arm with a baseball bat tried to sneak a loaded gun into the courthouse Wednesday, authorities said.
Terrance Washington, 41, put a bag holding a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun on the conveyer belt of a metal detector, sources said.
Alert court officers at the X-ray monitor spotted the weapon — which contained a live round — and quickly handcuffed the thick-headed thug.
“They’re called metal detectors. Duh!” a court officer said.
“A search revealed the firearm, which he had no permit for, and he was arrested,” Michael Magliano, chief of citywide court operations, told The Post.
Washington was arrested on the gun rap and missed his original court appearance while being processed on the new charges in Criminal Court.
Last year, Washington was arrested near his home in the Kensington section for allegedly breaking a man’s arm with a metal baseball bat during an argument over fireworks, court papers state.
Terrance Washington
Washington also has past arrests for burglary and served a state prison stint on a drug rap.
“How much weed would you have to smoke to forget you have a loaded gun in your bag? That’s insane,” asked a court source.
“They found a firearm at the magnetometers and it was loaded,” said Patrick Cullen, president of the state Supreme Court officers association.
“In light of what’s going on in the country with all the protests focused on law enforcement, right now law-enforcement officers need to be especially vigilant,” he added.
The single live round in the gun was lodged in the barrel, authorities said. It was unclear whether the weapon could have been immediately fired.
In 1989 at age 16, Washington pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a rival drug dealer in Flatbush, law-enforcement sources said.
Because he was charged as a juvenile, Washington was sentenced to just five years to life behind bars and was paroled in 1996 — although he was tossed back in prison twice for parole violations.