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Breaking: Death Toll In Washington Mall Mass Shooting Increases To 5

By Darien Cavanaugh
Published on: 22:35 PST, Sep 23, 2016

The death toll in the mass shooting at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, Friday night has risen to five, according to a report from CNN. Four of the deceased were women, the fifth was a man.

The male victim survived the initial shooting and was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, according to a report from the New York Times. He died of his injuries while there.

Sgt. Mark Francis, a spokesperson for the Washington state patrol, said a man with a rifle entered the Macy’s department store in the mall at approximately 7 p.m. and began shooting, according to CNN. After killing the four victims and injuring the fifth, he fled the store and escaped into the night.

Washington state authorities believe only one man perpetrated the crime. That suspect is still at large as of this posting.

Witnesses on the scene described panic and confusion.

“I didn’t know anything,” Brandi Montreuil told CNN. She had been watching a movie in the mall theater when the shooting began.

“The theater attendant came in and apologized for stopping the movie and said they (theater staff) were asked to have everyone leave immediately,” she said. “But you immediately think about what happened in Aurora, Colorado, so you start moving faster.”

Another witness, Tari Caswell, was in a dressing room inside Macy’s when she heard “what sounded like four balloons popping,” she told the Skagit Valley Herald.

“Then I heard seven or eight more, and I just stayed quiet in the dressing room because it just didn’t feel right,” Caswell told the Herald. “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.”

Police issued advisories telling people to stay away from the mall and to report any suspicious activity. Those who left their vehicles in the mall parking lot were instructed to return the next day to get them.

“We are still actively looking for the shooter. Stay indoors, stay secure,” Francis said at a news conference, according to the Guardian.

Local authorities released a grainy picture of who they believe is the suspect.

They described the suspect as “an Hispanic male in a black T-Shirt,” according to the Guardian.

In light of recent terrorist attacks in the New York-New Jersey area and Minnesota, the FBI issued a statement via Twitter explaining that they do not currently have any information to suggest that additional attacks are planned in the state of Washington.

Officers who arrived on the scene of the mass shooting swarmed the mall searching from store to store within the 440,000-square-foot building to look for survivors and the suspect, according to the Times. Several survivors had locked themselves in dressing rooms as well as other rooms and remained there until the police found them.

Disputes over the definition and numbers of mass shootings in the United States continue. The GunViolenceArchive.org website lists dozens of shootings it classifies as mass shootings that have occurred in 2016 alone.

“It becomes more commonplace obviously, these shooting situations in our country, but until you’re one of the ones inside a building like that it is really hard to describe,”Sergeant Francis told reporters, according to the Times.

[Featured image by Karen Ducey/Getty Images]

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