Nick Torset becomes emotional as he kneels after lighting a candle during a prayer service, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, at the Central United Methodist Church in Sedro-Woolley, Wash.
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A man believed to have opened fire with a rifle at a Washington state mall, killing five people, was captured on Saturday, one day after the attack, authorities said.
Island County Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Hawley said he spotted 20-year-old Arcan Cetin Saturday evening in Oak Harbor, Washington, from a patrol auto and immediately recognized him as the suspect.
Cetin was apprehended in Oak Harbor, Washington, about 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
Lt. Cammoc said Cetin “had been arrested in our county for a simple assault” in the past, without elaborating on the case. “I did an abrupt turn, hit my lights, pulled my gun, and myself and (a reserve deputy) took the individual into custody”. Hawley said Cetin was unarmed: “He said nothing”.
“He was kind of zombie-like, ” Lieutenant Hawley said.
About 24 hours after a shooting at Cascade Mall claimed the lives of five people, a suspect was taken into custody.
The shooting occurred Friday evening at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, about 65 miles north of Seattle.
By the time police arrived moments later, the carnage at the Macy’s makeup counter was complete.
He made his escape and was seen walking to a nearby interstate. A fifth victim, a man who was airlifted away from the scene, died later. he victims were aged from “teen to senior”, police said.
In February, he posted a link to a “Call of Duty” first-person shooter videogame practice session, in an eerie foreshadowing of the real world violence he is suspected of perpetrating.
At the news conference Saturday night, Mayor Steve Sexton of Burlington said the shootings happened at a time and in a setting that were ordinary: a Friday night at a mall.
The unidentified suspect, who police described on Twitter as an Hispanic male, initially walked into the shopping centre without the rifle but surveillance video later caught him brandishing the weapon, said Lt. Chris Cammock of the Mount Vernon Police Department at a briefing on Saturday.
Cetin has not been formally charged yet.
Police said Cetin is set to appear in court on Monday. The victim was identified as Cetin’s stepfather.
Cetin was active in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, said former classmate Uhlaine Finnigan, 19, of Port Angeles, Wash.
“Island County District Court records show that Cetin was told by a judge on December 29 that he was not to possess a firearm”.
On Saturday evening, Cammock said, police still did not have a motive for the shooting, but were not ruling anything out.
Officials said they recovered the weapon at the scene. Footage taken 10 minutes later showed him entering Macy’s with a rifle. The identity of the man who was fatally shot was also withheld.
Maria Elena Vasquez attended a community gathering Saturday, and she said she was nervous about taking her 7-year-old daughter to her soccer game.
She said she heard screaming as they were escorted out into the parking lot in Burlington. “But I want to keep it normal for her”.
The youngest victim was named as Sarai Lara, 16, who survived cancer as a young girl.
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Evangelina Lara told ( http://bit.ly/2cWhxJY ) the newspaper through a translator that she was shopping Friday night at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, with Sarai and her younger sister, but they split up.
