On Friday night, five people were shot dead in a Burlington mall. Here are the key points of how the shooting and manhunt unfolded.
Victims
The victims are believed to be:
- Sarai Lara, 16, a Mount Vernon High School sophomore who had survived cancer as a young girl
- Belinda Galde, 64, a probation officer based in Arlington for Snohomish County District Court
- Beatrice Dotson, 95, who was Galde’s mother
- Chuck Eagan, a longtime Boeing maintenance worker from Lake Stevens who was helping his wife when he was shot, according to a relative
- Shayla Martin, 52, of Mount Vernon, who worked at Macy’s as a makeup artist
Formal identification of the victims is expected Tuesday.
Suspect
The suspect is 20-year-old Arcan Cetin, of Oak Harbor, who was described as socially awkward and troubled. He has a criminal record that includes domestic-assault charges. Court records show Cetin was struggling with substance abuse and emotional and mental-health issues. Cetin had been told he was not allowed to possess a gun.
In November, Cetin attempted suicide and was hospitalized for two weeks, according to court documents.
News outlets, including the Seattle Times, originally reported the police’s incorrect description of the suspect as Hispanic. Cetin was born in Turkey but moved to the U.S. when he was a child. He is a permanent, legal U.S. resident, according to police.
Cetin was arrested Saturday near his Oak Harbor apartment by an Island County Sheriff’s lieutenant.
His alleged motives are unknown. Court documents say he had a falling-out with his stepfather hours before the shooting.Â
Criminal charges
Cetin was charged Monday morning with five counts of first-degree premeditated murder. A judge held him on $2 million bail.
Cascade Mall
The shooting took place at a Macy’s department store inside the 434,000-square-foot Cascade Mall.Â
On Friday, it was a chaotic scene. More than 200 police officers responded. Bomb-sniffing dogs searched the mall. A helicopter circled.
The mall closed over the weekend, but was scheduled to reopen Monday.
Firearm
Surveillance videos show the suspect initially entering the mall empty-handed. Ten minutes later, the suspect carried a rifle into Macy’s.Â
According to court documents, he retrieved a gun from the trunk of his car, carried out the shooting, left the gun on a counter inside Macy’s and then drove away in his car.
Court documents describe the rifle as a Ruger .22 caliber rifle with a 25-round magazine.
Community
Burlington is home to about 8,400 people. Interstate 5 cuts through the town, as does the Skagit River.
Family members who didn’t know the whereabouts of their loved ones went to His Place Community Church, which acted as a resource center Friday night and into Saturday.
The Northwest Washington chapter of the Red Cross dispatched five disaster mental-health volunteers to Burlington to help care for the community.
A vigil was held for the victims Saturday morning at Maiben Park in Burlington.
Police
Police received more than 250 tips, including one from the suspect’s stepfather. Police tracked the suspect and identified him using surveillance video. When Cetin was arrested at gunpoint, “he said nothing,” according to the sheriff’s lieutenant who arrested him.
Other mass shootings
This was the seventh mass shooting in Washington state this year.