“One lone shooter” remained on the loose following the killing of four women and a man at a a mall north of Seattle, police said.
 |
| Five dead in Washington state shopping centre shooting attack |
Police released an image of the suspect they believe is responsible for the shooting at Cascade mall in Burlington, Washington state, about 65 miles (105km) north of Seattle. The attack happened at around 7.30pm local time.
“We are still actively looking for the shooter,” a Washington state patrol spokesman, Sergeant Mark Francis, said at a news conference. “Stay indoors, stay secure.”
The department of emergency management said police were looking for a hispanic male in a black T-Shirt. Sergeant Francis said that the suspect was armed with a “hunting type” rifle and had last been seen walking toward Interstate 5.
Authorities said the motive was unknown. The Seattle FBI tweeted that there was no information to suggest any additional attacks were planned in Washington state. Officials asked residents to report any suspicious activity.
Francis said at about 8.30pm that the mall had been evacuated and emergency medical personnel were cleared to enter. Authorities were still doing a “final clear” of the 434,000 sq feet (40,319 sq metres) mall late on Friday night, he said. Eleven search teams and two K9 units were involved.
The mall parking lot was closed and emergency management officials told people they would be able to retrieve vehicles on Saturday, though the mall said it would be closed for the day.
Authorities initially reported four people were killed, then said three were dead, before revising the number again. Francis said the number fluctuated as authorities searched the shopping centre. A male victim who was critically wounded in the shooting died early on Saturday at a Seattle hospital. No other details about the victims were provided, including their ages.
A witness, Tari Caswell, told the Skagit Valley Herald she was in the Macy’s women’s dressing room when she heard “what sounded like four balloons popping.”
“Then I heard seven or eight more,” she said, “and I just stayed quiet in the dressing room because it just didn’t feel right. And it got very quiet. And then I heard a lady yelling for help, and a man came and got me and another lady, and we ran out of the store.”
Stephanie Bose, an assistant general manager at Johnny Carino’s Italian restaurant near the Macy’s store, said she immediately locked the doors to the restaurant after hearing about the shooting from an employee’s boyfriend.
“He was trying to go to the mall and people were screaming,” she said. “It was frantic.”
She said he could see police at the doors with assault rifles, who were no longer guarding the doors as of 9.30 pm.
Washington governor Jay Inslee said in a statement that many questions remained but state patrol and local law enforcement were on the scene working swiftly to locate the shooter and clear the area.
“Trudi and I send our condolences to the families of the victims and prayers for anyone injured,” he said. “We urge residents to heed all safety and detour warnings. Stay close to your friends and loved ones as we await more information and, hopefully, news of the suspect’s capture.”
The Cascade mall is an enclosed shopping mall in Burlington, Washington, that opened in 1990, according to the mall’s website. It features JC Penney, TJ Maxx and Macy’s stores, among others, restaurants and a movie theater.
The shooting comes less than a week after a man stabbed nine people at a mall in central Minnesota, before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer.
guardian
0 Comments