Authorities said Sunday what motivated the suspect to open fire at the Cascade Mall on Friday night local time remains unclear.
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He made his escape and was seen walking to a nearby interstate. In a mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota a man stabbed 10 people before he was shot and killed by an officer, who was off-duty.
He posted a link to “Call of Duty”, a popular first-person shooter videogame in February, in an eerie foreshadowing of real world violence. “It came to our little community”, Sexton said.
Authorities have arrested a Turkish-born man suspected of shooting five people dead, including a teenaged cancer survivor, at a shopping mall in the U.S. state of Washington.
As for the motive, sources say Cetin’s ex-girlfriend use to work at the Macy’s where the shooting happened. He’s in the process of being booked into jail, and will make a court appearance Monday.
As the small city absorbed the news, critical questions remained, including the shooter’s motive.
Police have confirmed that the suspected killer is 20-year-old Arcan Cetin.
Authorities had said that a rifle had been found at the shooting scene.
Police said the ages of the victims ranged from a teenager to a senior citizen.
KIRO also showed a video of police leading a young man, who did not resist, to a vehicle.
Earlier Saturday as police scrambled to find the shooter, the small city about 60 miles (97 kilometers) waited and anxious.
After the shooting, police and rescue workers worked their way through the mall, clearing stores and evacuating shoppers, some of whom locked themselves in dressing rooms.
She drove home, but said she had to pull over.
People who believed they may have lost loved ones were being sequestered at a church three blocks from the mall, where counsellors and a golden retriever therapy dog were present.
The FBI says it is assisting local authorities in the investigation into a deadly mall shooting in Washington state.
“We’re really having a tough time right now”, her sister Karen Van Horn told The Seattle Times.
Washington State Trooper Mark Francis speaks to the media at the Cascade Mall following reports of an active shooter in Burlington, Washington, on September 23, 2016.
“She (Lara) was a strong girl, she told me a lot about her life and I trusted her with everything”, her friend told Komo News.
The Rev Cody Natland lit five candles on a table in front of the church, one for each victim. Associated Press writers Lisa Baumann in Seattle and Kimberlee Kruesi in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.
Police have captured the gunman in a mass shooting at a Washington state shopping mall that left five dead, authorities said last night.
Four women died at the scene of the shooting, and a man died from his wounds after being rushed to Skagit Valley Hospital.
Francis said authorities were still doing a “final clear” of the 434,000-square-foot (40,319-square-meter) mall late Friday night.
Cetin was apprehended in Oak Harbor, Washington, about 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
Cetin was born in 1997 and was 18 years old at the time of his arrest for fourth-degree assault.
Washington State Patrol spokesman Keith Leary said in a phone interview that the man was taken into custody.
Lt. Michael Hawley of the Island County Sheriff’s Office said he had received a report that Cetin’s auto was less than a mile from his office. He complied with the alcohol assessment, according to court records, and he had a deferred prosecution review for the case scheduled for 2018.
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The FBI office in Seattle said it had no evidence the shooting was terror-related.
