The lone suspect in the fatal shooting of five people in a Washington state mall is in custody after a almost 24-hour manhunt, authorities said early Sunday.
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Coalescing with the notion that Arcan Cetin may have come to the Burlington shopping mall to take revenge against his ex girlfriend who he may have believed to still be working at the Macy’s were unconfirmed reports from witnesses that Cetin had shouted a woman’s name multiple times just moments before opening fire, according to FOX-Q13.
Local broadcaster K5 said the suspect had been in possession of three guns on Friday night when the shooting took place at the Cascade Mall in Burlington in the USA state of Washington.
When officers confronted him, he did not run, he just froze and complied, said Lt. Mike Hawley of the Island County Sheriff’s Office.
“He said nothing”, Hawley said. “He was kind of zombie-like”.
Washington state police officials said in messages on Twitter that authorities would hold a news conference to provide further details about the arrest. The FBI was assisting local authorities, but it said there was no evidence to point to terrorism. The Associated Press reported he had a previous arrest for simple assault, but it is unclear how that case played out. But there was nothing else to inform that very general description, Lieutenant Chris Cammock of the Mount Vernon Police Department said, and he could be of any ethnicity. He allegedly fled the mall afterward, sending more than 24 law enforcement agencies on a manhunt across the state. Eventually, they identified his vehicle by matching information received from a tip with surveillance footage obtained from local business.
While still early in the investigation, authorities have not announced a motive.
Cammock said police had no clues about the identity or whereabouts of the suspect, and asked the public for help in tracking him down. “It was the world knocking on our doorstep, and it came to our little community here”, Mayor Steve Sexton said. The shooting comes less than a week after a man stabbed nine people at a mall in the central Minnesota city of St. Cloud before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer. Gov. Jay Inslee will be in attendance. He noted that the entire state of Washington stood with Burlington–and would continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
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Authorities describe Cetin is a young resident of Oak Harbor who immigrated from Turkey. He’s in the process of being booked into jail, and will make a court appearance Monday.
