Weapons Ruger 10/22 rifle Date 23 September 2016 | Suspected perpetrator Arcan Cetin Total number of deaths 5 | |
 | ||
Location Cascade Mall, Burlington, Washington, United States Attack types Mass shooting, Mass murder Similar Westroads Mall shooting, Monroeville Mall shooting, 2016 Mukilteo shooting, 2012 Aurora shooting | ||
On September 23, 2016, five people were killed in a mass shooting at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, U.S. The gunman was identified as Arcan Cetin, a 20-year-old who immigrated from Turkey as a child with his family. He was arrested the following day in Oak Harbor, Washington, his hometown. On September 26, he confessed to committing the shooting.
Contents
Killings
On September 23, 2016, Cetin bought tickets evening showing of the movie Snowden at the Cascade Mall. He propped open the theater's exit door with his cell phone and left the theater, an action reminiscent of how the 2012 Aurora shooting was carried out. However, a moviegoer found the phone and turned it into a theater kiosk, where Cetin subsequently retrieved it. Shortly before 7:00 p.m. PDT on September 23, 2016, Arcan Cetin walked into the Macy's store at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, with a stolen rifle and opened fire, killing four women and one man. The male victim died the next day at a Seattle hospital.
Video footage of the shooting, released on October 28, showed the gunman randomly targeting his victims. He first killed a woman near some clothing racks, then approached a cosmetics counter, where he killed one man and three women. All of the victims were shot at close range, and other people present in the store were able to escape unharmed because of their distance from the shooter. Afterwards, the gunman abandoned his weapon and fled the scene in a blue four-door vehicle.
The FBI and ATF are providing assistance to the Burlington police and Washington state police in investigating the shooting.
The shooting followed a number of widely publicized attacks on shopping centers, and came a week after the 2016 Minnesota mall stabbing.
Victims
Five people were killed during the Cascade Mall shooting. They were Sarai Lara (16), a sophomore at Mount Vernon High School and cancer survivor; Chuck Eagan (61), a Boeing maintenance worker from Lake Stevens; Belinda Galde (64), a probation officer with the Snohomish County District Court; Beatrice Dotson (95), Galde's mother; and Shayla Martin (52), a make-up artist at Macy's.
Legal proceedings
Cetin has been charged with “premeditated intent” on five counts of aggravated murder, a charge that has been upgraded from the initial charge of first-degree premeditated murder. The charge of aggravated murder is punishable by a sentence of life without parole, or by the death penalty. These penalties are carried by each of the five charges.
Suspect
Arcan Cetin (pronounced [ar'dʒan tʃe'tin], born August 20, 1996), the sole suspect, was born in Adana, Turkey. He immigrated to the United States as a child after his mother married a U.S. citizen. Authorities initially identified him as a "permanent resident" until further investigation found that he was a naturalized American citizen. He graduated from Oak Harbor High School in 2015 and worked as a bagger at the Commissary in Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.
Cetin was arrested without incident on the evening of September 24 while he was walking on Oak Harbor Road at Northeast Seventh Avenue in Oak Harbor, Washington. Two days later, he confessed to the shooting. Cetin was charged with five counts of aggravated murder. He is being evaluated for mental health concerns.
Online records show that Cetin had prior arrests; he was a defendant in seven cases in Island County District Court from 2013 to 2015 and was arrested in July 2015 on charges of assault in the fourth degree. Cetin was ordered to undergo mental health counseling which he completed in March 2016. The court also imposed an order for him not to take drugs or drink alcohol. As of August 25, 2016, no breach of the court order against Cetin had been identified.
Possible motive
Police have not yet officially released a motive for the shooting. Before Cetin's arrest, authorities stated they had no reason to believe the incident was related to terrorism. Cetin told authorities that he was interested in the activities of ISIS, but when asked if the terrorist group had inspired his actions he replied, "I can't answer that."
On September 25, 2016, it was reported that Cetin may have been motivated by the break-up of a relationship with a worker from the Macy's store he targeted, but the ex-girlfriend had not worked there in months and currently lives in another county. Cetin was described by authorities as having called out women's names as he allegedly killed them during the shooting.