News

Shooter Attacks Washington State Mall

by Emily Shire

On Friday night, a mall roughly 65 miles north of Seattle was the site of a shooting with multiple fatalities. A gunman attacked the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington. At the time of writing, the latest reports note that four people were confirmed dead, according to the Twitter account of Sgt. Mark Francis, a public information officer with the Washington State Patrol. Francis also tweeted an image of the man police suspect to be the shooter, noting he is at large and believed to be "armed with rifle." According to the latest reports, authorities believe he is the only shooter involved in this attack.

According to BuzzFeed, police sad they received reports of shots being fired around 7 p.m. local time. The Cascade Mall was placed under lockdown following the shooting, but by 8:30 p.m. local time, it had undergone an initial evacuation and "emergency medical personnel were cleared to enter and attend to any injuries," according to the Associated Press. It is unclear how many people were injured in the shooting.

Members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives was deployed to the deadly shooting, as well. At the time of writing, the suspected shooter is on the loose, and it is unclear if the casualties were specifically targeted. “Right now, we can’t assume anything,” Washington State Trooper Rick Johnson told CNN.

Brandi Montreuil was at a movie theater that was evacuated following reports of the shooting. Montreuil told CNN, she didn't initially think it was a shooting, "But you immediately think about what happened in Aurora, Colorado, so you start moving faster."