A male victim who had been flown to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center in critical condition died overnight, Francis tweeted at 3:28 a.m. Saturday.
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As the small city absorbed the tragic news, critical questions remained, including the identity of the shooter, his motive and his whereabouts.
Francis described the suspect as “Hispanic male wearing grey”. “I don’t know what his motivation was to continue, I don’t know what his motivation was to stop, but I certainly intend to find out”.
Cascade Mall shooting. Pictured the un-identified suspect. Burlington police department requested help from SMART because of the magnitude of the crime, he said.
The Island County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect was taken into custody in Oak Harbor almost 24 hours after he murdered four women and one man at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Wash. The rifle the suspect seen carrying in stills appeared to be that of a Marlin Model 60 or Ruger 10/22 said authorities.
Maria Elena Vasquez of Burlington attended a community gathering Saturday. “The people coming in here are just shaken and scared to death”, Harris said. “The amount of sirens and the amount of police cars was insane”. Hundreds of police offices and two K-9 units were dispatched to the immediate area to search for the shooter. “People were panicking, screaming down the hallway”.
REYNOLDS: We know that there were four women and one man. Police declined to give any identification information out.
A weapon was recovered at Cascade Mall in Burlington, a town of about 8,000 people some 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Seattle. When her niece called her, “You could hear the panic in her voice”.
Police confirmed four women were killed inside the mall.
“Out of nowhere I just hear somebody yell and then after that, I turn around and just look at the Macy’s and I just hear shots”, Patino told CNN affiliate KOMO-TV in Seattle. “And it got very quiet”.
“Probably one of the most hard moments for us last night was knowing that there were family members wondering about their loved ones in there”, Mount Vernon police Lt. Chris Cammock said. A search at the mall and surrounding area included bomb-sniffing dogs and a helicopter.
A vigil is scheduled tonight in Sedro-Woolley following a shooting at Cascade Mall Friday night that left 5 people dead.
Emergency medics entered the 434,000-square-foot mall escorted by police, Francis said.
On Sept. 17 a man stabbed 10 people at a Minnesota mall before being shot and killed by an off-duty police officer.
The casualty count fluctuated through the evening.
As of Saturday morning, the bodies of the four female victims were still inside the mall, Skagit County coroner Hayley Thompson said at a press conference Saturday.
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The FBI said on Twitter that it is assisting with intelligence review and manpower and adds that it “has no information to suggest additional attacks planned in WA state”. Now, our support goes with (law enforcement) to help them extend the long arm of the law, to help bring this son of a b**** to justice that did this to our community.
