Police in northwest Washington state are on the lookout for a man who opened fire on Friday night in the makeup department of a Macy’s inside a mall and killed five people. The carnage began at around 7 p.m. on Friday, when a man walked into the Cascade Mall in Burlington, around 65 miles north of Seattle, and just started shooting. Four women were killed on the spot and a man who was seriously injured died overnight. “We are still actively looking for the shooter,” Washington State Patrol spokesman Sgt. Mark Francis said at a news conference. “Stay indoors, stay secure.”
The gunman, who appears to have worked alone, left the mall before law enforcement arrived. Police are now searching for a Hispanic man wearing gray who was last seen on the trails outside the mall walking toward a highway. Early Saturday, the FBI sought to bring some calm to the area, writing on Twitter that it had “no information to suggest additional attacks planned” in Washington state.
“Tragedy has struck in Washington tonight. Our hearts are in Burlington,” Gov. Jay Inslee wrote on Twitter.
The shooting comes less than a week after a man was shot dead at a mall in Minnesota after he stabbed nine people, which the FBI is investigating as a possible terror attack.
