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 U.S. state of Washington.
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A gunman opened fire at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, on Friday night, killing four females and a male before fleeing.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee praised the hundreds of law enforcement personnel involved with capturing Cetin in less than 24 hours.
“We suffered a devastating loss of five treasured members of our community who had done nothing more than what we all would have done on any given day: gone to the shopping mall”, he said.
Authorities did not say how the suspect may have obtained the weapon – whether he retrieved it from outside or picked it up in the mall – but they believe he acted alone.
Up to late yesterday, the search was continuing for a gunman who police said killed five people in a Washington state mall.
Cetin’s motive remained unclear Saturday night. “It changed our city, I’m afraid to some extent, forever”.
Skagit County coroner Hayley Thompson said she had not yet gained access to the scene to start identifying the victims. He would not go into details about the ownership of the rifle Cetin allegedly used to carry out the shooting.
At the Oak Harbour Police Department press conference Lt. Chris Cammock said that the suspect had not resisted arrest when he was traced to his home and they were not yet in a position to say what motivated the killings.
Cetin is scheduled to make a court appearance Monday.
A shelter-in-place request initiated Friday evening for a one-mile radius around the mall was lifted early Saturday morning.
Her sister, Evangelina Lara, told The Seattle Times the teenager had been pronounced dead by police at 2am on Saturday. Before the suspect’s arrest, an official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation had told reporters there was “no evidence at this time” of a link to terrorism.
The Cascade Mall is an enclosed shopping mall that opened in 1990.
Police said he was taken into custody without incident in Oak Harbor, some 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Burlington where the shooting occurred on Friday night.
Cammock confirmed that Cetin is a legal permanent resident of the USA who had immigrated from Turkey.
“He was trying to go to the mall and people were screaming”, she said.
His rifle was recovered at the scene of the mall shooting.
Burlington mayor Steve Sexton said the city “has probably changed forever”.
News of the shooting spread through the mall and Ms Lara tried to find her daughter but was unable to do so.
Hayley Thompson, the Skagit County coroner, said the victims would be identified only after she examined their bodies at the hospital.
The attack was the seventh time this year in which at least four people were killed in a shooting in Washington, according to The Seattle Times.
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Earlier Saturday as police scrambled to find the shooter, the small city about 60 miles (97 kilometers) waited and anxious.
