hi my friends i want to wish ya all a happy thanksgiving if ya celebrate it. if not then happy thursday LOL LOL, tonight i enjoyed chatting with my friends at the ville' today was so busy. i had to go to the mall to get hubby a birthday present(yes i know it was last week, but we are going to celebrate it again on thursday so his mom and dad can be here) i was suprised at how dead the mall was . i thought it would not be quite that bad after the shooting that happend on sundayafternoon. this is what happened .
With a semi-automatic rifle under his trench coat and a pistol and extra ammunition in a guitar case, Dominick Sergio Maldonado went to the Tacoma Mall on Sunday intent on making himself heard.
That’s what court documents charged Monday.
Shortly after noon, a 911 call came in from the 20-year-old’s cell phone. The caller said he had two assault rifles and was about to start shooting.
Where was he going to shoot, the dispatcher asked.
“Just follow the screams,” the caller answered.
Seconds later, Pierce County prosecutors charge, Maldonado started shooting inside the mall. He fired at least 20 times, wounding six people, and held hostages for hours before surrendering.
Prosecutors charged Maldonado with 14 crimes Monday and detailed the noon-hour shootings at the South Tacoma shopping center that terrified the community.
During their investigation of Maldonado, police found hundreds of rounds of ammunition and several ammunition magazines, the charges say. In his East Side bedroom, they found a formula for creating the poison ricin, targets in the shape of humans, and bomb-making diagrams and materials.
Maldonado told investigators he’d suffered childhood humiliation and difficulties and that recent emotional events and a desire to be heard led to the shootings. Nevertheless, he said he wasn’t trying to shoot anyone and claimed he wanted only to “hold people” to get the attention of the news media.
Defense attorney Sverre Staurset said Maldonado was remorseful, and devastated to learn his bullets had hit people.
But a day after the shootings, no one knows just what it is Maldonado wanted to say.
“All that I know is he felt like he was being ignored,” deputy prosecutor Phil Sorensen said. “I don’t know what it is he wants to say. I don’t have a clue, and that seems to be part of the whole mystery of what’s going on.”
Tall and thin, his thick black hair cut short, Maldonado stood in a fifth-floor Pierce County Superior Court courtroom and pleaded not guilty to eight counts of first-degree assault, four counts of first-degree kidnapping and two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm.
Judge Gary Steiner set bail for Maldonado at $2 million. The judge set a trial date in January.
It’s an assault case everyone hopes won’t turn into a homicide. Of the six people hit by gunfire, one man – Brendan McKown, who was shot in the abdomen – was still in the hospital, in critical condition Monday night.
“He is still living,” Sorensen said, “but subject to infection and other sorts of things that could take his life.”
Maldonado’s mother watched the hearing silently, occasionally shaking her head and closing her eyes.
Seeing Maldonado in court was a healing experience for some shoppers caught in the fray Sunday.
“(A grief counselor who works for the court system) thought it would be a good idea for me to go and see him,” said Kris Triboulet, a Pierce County court reporter who said the shooting seemed to go on forever as she and her boyfriend were crouched in a jewelry store. “So it’s not always the monster in the closet. He’s the punk that I can process in my head.”
In charging papers, prosecutors allege the shooting spree started after Maldonado entered the mall near the Sears store. He went up to a T-Mobile kiosk near the J.C. Penney store and spoke to an employee before taking off his trench coat and firing, documents say.
Two people – Frank Latimer and Anderea Hutchison – were hit. Maldonado shot at T-Mobile employees Daniel Torres and James Toomey but missed them, the documents say.
Witnesses said Maldonado then turned and fired down the length of the mall. Documents say one round was recovered more than 500 feet away inside the mall.
He walked toward Macy’s.
Roberta Davis was shot in the thigh near Starbucks. McKown was shot near Kit’s Camera, and is paralyzed, with internal injuries. Frank Stiles was hit in the arm, and Amit Benyehuda was shot in the leg near the Sam Goody Music Store.
Maldonado went into the music store and herded three people – employees Joseph Hudson and Catherine Riggins and customer John Black – to the back of the store, documents say. Joseph Howe, another employee, said he was ordered to stay in the store but escaped through a back door. A young boy, identified only as P.P., also was taken hostage.
Maldonado then fired multiple rounds inside the store, charges say.
Hudson, an Iraq war veteran, told police he was more frightened inside the store than he ever was in Iraq.
Maldonado, who had constructed a barricade at the store’s front door, agreed to release the boy, documents say. Then, after nearly four hours, he gave his weapons to a hostage and was arrested, according to the documents.
Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said officers negotiated with Maldonado for hours, but he didn’t know what persuaded Maldonado to give up.
Sorensen said the investigation is continuing and charges could be added.
Already, Maldonado faces what would effectively be a life sentence. The first 12 charges against him carry added prison time because a firearm was used in the crime. Those alone would be 60 years in prison without release. Each of the eight assault charges also has a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
Defense attorney Staurset said part of his job will be to figure out why it happened.
“Anything as horrendous as this must have some genesis,” he said. “It’s my job to make sense of something that’s not easy to make sense of. How does an otherwise attractive man of 20 years old end up with a gun at the mall on a Sunday?”
The attorney said he thinks things in Maldonado’s background – “worse than ridicule” – will explain the shooting.
The veteran defense attorney said he doesn’t yet know Maldonado well, but he knows the kind of client he is.
“I think this is the Columbine client,” Staurset said. “I think his background is exactly like all the high school shooters.”
i did not think the people who normally shop here would stay away like they have been. today i don't think there was more than maybe 300 people total there. if that
i figured it was over and that i needed to get a gift for hubby so i went there. is a sad sad world when things like this happen, and because of all the victims(there was over 100 kids waiting to see santa it could have been so much worse. i am doubly thankful as my daughter often goes to this mall as she has friends who work at the mall including one who works at sam goody(although he was not working that day) but other friends were and they are all terrorized . i hope that the people who were injured will be alright and am praying for the man who is in critical condition that he survives and that he is not paralized as the doctors are saying he may very well be. so i guess i have many things to be thankful for and that is one of them that she was not there/ god bless all of you and may you have a peaceful bountiful
thanksgiving. and that any of you traveling arrives safe and sound at where ever you are going. also i pray for our troops in the middle east and else where,. god bless them too as they continue to lay their lives on the line protecting this great country of ours. take care and god bless you all. hugggggggggggs
With a semi-automatic rifle under his trench coat and a pistol and extra ammunition in a guitar case, Dominick Sergio Maldonado went to the Tacoma Mall on Sunday intent on making himself heard.
That’s what court documents charged Monday.
Shortly after noon, a 911 call came in from the 20-year-old’s cell phone. The caller said he had two assault rifles and was about to start shooting.
Where was he going to shoot, the dispatcher asked.
“Just follow the screams,” the caller answered.
Seconds later, Pierce County prosecutors charge, Maldonado started shooting inside the mall. He fired at least 20 times, wounding six people, and held hostages for hours before surrendering.
Prosecutors charged Maldonado with 14 crimes Monday and detailed the noon-hour shootings at the South Tacoma shopping center that terrified the community.
During their investigation of Maldonado, police found hundreds of rounds of ammunition and several ammunition magazines, the charges say. In his East Side bedroom, they found a formula for creating the poison ricin, targets in the shape of humans, and bomb-making diagrams and materials.
Maldonado told investigators he’d suffered childhood humiliation and difficulties and that recent emotional events and a desire to be heard led to the shootings. Nevertheless, he said he wasn’t trying to shoot anyone and claimed he wanted only to “hold people” to get the attention of the news media.
Defense attorney Sverre Staurset said Maldonado was remorseful, and devastated to learn his bullets had hit people.
But a day after the shootings, no one knows just what it is Maldonado wanted to say.
“All that I know is he felt like he was being ignored,” deputy prosecutor Phil Sorensen said. “I don’t know what it is he wants to say. I don’t have a clue, and that seems to be part of the whole mystery of what’s going on.”
Tall and thin, his thick black hair cut short, Maldonado stood in a fifth-floor Pierce County Superior Court courtroom and pleaded not guilty to eight counts of first-degree assault, four counts of first-degree kidnapping and two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm.
Judge Gary Steiner set bail for Maldonado at $2 million. The judge set a trial date in January.
It’s an assault case everyone hopes won’t turn into a homicide. Of the six people hit by gunfire, one man – Brendan McKown, who was shot in the abdomen – was still in the hospital, in critical condition Monday night.
“He is still living,” Sorensen said, “but subject to infection and other sorts of things that could take his life.”
Maldonado’s mother watched the hearing silently, occasionally shaking her head and closing her eyes.
Seeing Maldonado in court was a healing experience for some shoppers caught in the fray Sunday.
“(A grief counselor who works for the court system) thought it would be a good idea for me to go and see him,” said Kris Triboulet, a Pierce County court reporter who said the shooting seemed to go on forever as she and her boyfriend were crouched in a jewelry store. “So it’s not always the monster in the closet. He’s the punk that I can process in my head.”
In charging papers, prosecutors allege the shooting spree started after Maldonado entered the mall near the Sears store. He went up to a T-Mobile kiosk near the J.C. Penney store and spoke to an employee before taking off his trench coat and firing, documents say.
Two people – Frank Latimer and Anderea Hutchison – were hit. Maldonado shot at T-Mobile employees Daniel Torres and James Toomey but missed them, the documents say.
Witnesses said Maldonado then turned and fired down the length of the mall. Documents say one round was recovered more than 500 feet away inside the mall.
He walked toward Macy’s.
Roberta Davis was shot in the thigh near Starbucks. McKown was shot near Kit’s Camera, and is paralyzed, with internal injuries. Frank Stiles was hit in the arm, and Amit Benyehuda was shot in the leg near the Sam Goody Music Store.
Maldonado went into the music store and herded three people – employees Joseph Hudson and Catherine Riggins and customer John Black – to the back of the store, documents say. Joseph Howe, another employee, said he was ordered to stay in the store but escaped through a back door. A young boy, identified only as P.P., also was taken hostage.
Maldonado then fired multiple rounds inside the store, charges say.
Hudson, an Iraq war veteran, told police he was more frightened inside the store than he ever was in Iraq.
Maldonado, who had constructed a barricade at the store’s front door, agreed to release the boy, documents say. Then, after nearly four hours, he gave his weapons to a hostage and was arrested, according to the documents.
Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said officers negotiated with Maldonado for hours, but he didn’t know what persuaded Maldonado to give up.
Sorensen said the investigation is continuing and charges could be added.
Already, Maldonado faces what would effectively be a life sentence. The first 12 charges against him carry added prison time because a firearm was used in the crime. Those alone would be 60 years in prison without release. Each of the eight assault charges also has a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
Defense attorney Staurset said part of his job will be to figure out why it happened.
“Anything as horrendous as this must have some genesis,” he said. “It’s my job to make sense of something that’s not easy to make sense of. How does an otherwise attractive man of 20 years old end up with a gun at the mall on a Sunday?”
The attorney said he thinks things in Maldonado’s background – “worse than ridicule” – will explain the shooting.
The veteran defense attorney said he doesn’t yet know Maldonado well, but he knows the kind of client he is.
“I think this is the Columbine client,” Staurset said. “I think his background is exactly like all the high school shooters.”
i did not think the people who normally shop here would stay away like they have been. today i don't think there was more than maybe 300 people total there. if that
i figured it was over and that i needed to get a gift for hubby so i went there. is a sad sad world when things like this happen, and because of all the victims(there was over 100 kids waiting to see santa it could have been so much worse. i am doubly thankful as my daughter often goes to this mall as she has friends who work at the mall including one who works at sam goody(although he was not working that day) but other friends were and they are all terrorized . i hope that the people who were injured will be alright and am praying for the man who is in critical condition that he survives and that he is not paralized as the doctors are saying he may very well be. so i guess i have many things to be thankful for and that is one of them that she was not there/ god bless all of you and may you have a peaceful bountiful
thanksgiving. and that any of you traveling arrives safe and sound at where ever you are going. also i pray for our troops in the middle east and else where,. god bless them too as they continue to lay their lives on the line protecting this great country of ours. take care and god bless you all. hugggggggggggs
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