Gun violence: US police capture mall shooter who killed five
Identify suspect as 20-year-old Turkish American; say no proof shooting was terror related
Shooting suspect Arcan Cetin. PHOTO: AFP
LOS ANGELES:
Authorities have arrested a Turkish-born man suspected of shooting five people dead, including a teenaged cancer survivor, at a shopping mall in the US state of Washington.
Police named the suspect as Arcan Cetin, a 20-year-old resident of the nearby town of Oak Harbour, saying he was arrested late Saturday about 24 hours after the killings. The FBI office in Seattle said it had no evidence the shooting was terror-related.
The gunman opened fire with a rifle in the makeup section of a Macy’s department store late Friday, killing four women and a man, according to police. He later left the store on foot, triggering an intense manhunt. Police are still trying to establish a motive.
The youngest victim was named as Sarai Lara, 16, who survived cancer as a young girl. Relatives named another victim as 52-year-old Shayla Martin, who worked as a Macy’s makeup artist. “We’re really having a tough time right now,” her sister Karen Van Horn told The Seattle Times.
Authorities had initially described the suspect as a Hispanic man in his late teens or early 20s. Members of the public called in with numerous tips that helped lead to the arrest, police said, adding that Cetin’s family was cooperating. While Cetin was born in Turkey, he is a legal permanent resident of the United States, said Lieutenant Chris Cammock, criminal investigations chief for the Mount Vernon Police Department. He is due in court on Monday.
A Facebook page that appeared to belong to Cetin – which has since been taken down – said he was born in the southern Turkish city of Adana. It also said went to Oak Harbour High School, which is about a 30-mile drive from Burlington, and had worked at a grocery store on nearby Whidbey Island. Police said Cetin had one prior arrest, last year, for assault.
Burlington Mayor Steve Sexton’s voice trembled as he noted that the randomness of gun violence in America – which causes an estimated 30,000 deaths a year – had hit his small town. “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. “It changed those families forever. And we keep them in our prayers. It changed our community, I’m afraid, forever.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2016.
Authorities have arrested a Turkish-born man suspected of shooting five people dead, including a teenaged cancer survivor, at a shopping mall in the US state of Washington.
Police named the suspect as Arcan Cetin, a 20-year-old resident of the nearby town of Oak Harbour, saying he was arrested late Saturday about 24 hours after the killings. The FBI office in Seattle said it had no evidence the shooting was terror-related.
The gunman opened fire with a rifle in the makeup section of a Macy’s department store late Friday, killing four women and a man, according to police. He later left the store on foot, triggering an intense manhunt. Police are still trying to establish a motive.
The youngest victim was named as Sarai Lara, 16, who survived cancer as a young girl. Relatives named another victim as 52-year-old Shayla Martin, who worked as a Macy’s makeup artist. “We’re really having a tough time right now,” her sister Karen Van Horn told The Seattle Times.
Authorities had initially described the suspect as a Hispanic man in his late teens or early 20s. Members of the public called in with numerous tips that helped lead to the arrest, police said, adding that Cetin’s family was cooperating. While Cetin was born in Turkey, he is a legal permanent resident of the United States, said Lieutenant Chris Cammock, criminal investigations chief for the Mount Vernon Police Department. He is due in court on Monday.
A Facebook page that appeared to belong to Cetin – which has since been taken down – said he was born in the southern Turkish city of Adana. It also said went to Oak Harbour High School, which is about a 30-mile drive from Burlington, and had worked at a grocery store on nearby Whidbey Island. Police said Cetin had one prior arrest, last year, for assault.
Burlington Mayor Steve Sexton’s voice trembled as he noted that the randomness of gun violence in America – which causes an estimated 30,000 deaths a year – had hit his small town. “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. “It changed those families forever. And we keep them in our prayers. It changed our community, I’m afraid, forever.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2016.