MD - Two killed, 5 injured in Columbia mall shooting, 25 Jan 2014

[LietKynes]

usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/27/22468435-many-questions-linger-in-deadly-maryland-mall-shooting?lite

At this point, it doesn't seem like there is any connection between the three of them.
Unless there's an indication in Aguilar's journal.

 

[HMSHood]

I wonder if the killings stemmed from any customer dispute.

 

[FragileSugar]

Shooter frequently visited Columbia mall, police say

Howard County police said they have reviewed Aguilar's journal and are examining his cellphone and a home computer, but have found nothing that connects him with the victims. Of the journal, authorities said only that Aguilar "knew he was having mental health issues."

 

[Paradise]

Gunman Met Someone Before Columbia Mall Shooting

Columbia Mall gunman Darion Aguilar met someone in Burtonsville, Md., before the shooting in which two people were killed before he turned the gun on himself Jan. 25.

That morning, Aguilar, 19, left his College Park home at 5:15 and met another young man at a Wendy’s on Briggs Chaney Road, sources told News4. Sometime after 9:30 a.m., he used a smartphone app to summon a Barwood taxi to take him to the mall. An employee at the restaurant said the two men parted ways when the cab arrived.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/l...-Before-Columbia-Mall-Shooting-243018941.html

 

[Bluecat]

Hi! Columbia is my hometown - I live about an hour away now, but my sister lives there and many of my friends. One friend's younger brother was across the way and witnessed one of the murders, and another friend's children were immediately below in the food court. It was a pretty rough day, as everyone was trying to check up on friends and family and figure out just what was going on.

More about his journal: He planned to kill people. He was having violent murder fantasies, wanted to die, and knew he was mentally ill and needed help. Sadly, he did not take the next step of telling anyone about it.

On Saturday, there was a moment of silence observed at the Columbia Mall, and they've had a memorial book out all week. People have also been floating flowers in a pool in the mall as a remembrance. Saturday afternoon there was also a group skateboard event organized at a local park by Benlolo's friends. The Zumiez store is boarded up, and it seems unlikely to reopen, at least at that location. No idea what will happen to that space.

 

[Indy Anna]

Thank you for sharing a personal account of this tragedy, Bluecat. No updates recently. I doubt investigators will ever piece together the whole story. Aguilar likely took it to the grave with him. Did he, I wonder, choose the victims randomly, or was there a reason he waited until he was in the skate shop before he began firing his weapon?

 

[popsicle]

FOX News Shepard Smith- shooter did NOT know his victims and was obsessed with the Columbine shootings per LE.

 

[popsicle]

Columbia mall shooter fascinated by Columbine, police say

Police believe Aguilar may have waited inside the mall for over 40 minutes in order to begin his shooting about the same time that the Columbine massacre started.

snip

Just before he emerged from the dressing room of the Zumiez skateboarding and snowboarding store to begin the shooting, Aguilar took a picture of himself in the mirror and posted it to the social media website Tumblr. Some of way he is dressed, wearing a white T-shirt, boots and cargo pants with his shotgun in a sling around him, is reminiscent of one of the Columbine killers, McMahon said.

"I had to do this. Today is the day," Aguilar wrote in a post with the photo, adding that he woke up and "felt no emotions no empathy no sympathy."

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/0...-mall-shooter-didn-t-know-victims-101064.html


Columbia Mall shooting: Zumiez store where two were shot will reopen in May

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/0...-two-were-shot-will-reopen-in-may-102053.html

 

[starviego]

An interesting interview with the Columbia police chief:

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/20...mcmahon-brianna-benlolo-darion-marcus-aguilar

(Police Chief William J.)McMahon said... ...the police radio erupted with chatter about a shooting at the mall. At first, McMahon thought it was a drill and wondered why he hadn't been told about it, but soon realized otherwise. ...He said the department had worked with mall managers for years to prepare for such a situation, including a drill a year before at the mall that he called "eerily similar" to the real event. "If that was 'Game Day,' " McMahon said, "it was a game we began planning for six, seven years ago."

"Game Day?" That's a curious choice of words. It comes out a lot from the mouths of the school shooters too.

--------------------

http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/Police3-24-2014
Howard County Police confirmed Aguilar spent a lot of time at the mall and often smoked outside with a small group of friends. Police could not confirm if Aguilar was a regular at the Zumiez store and it remains unclear why he chose the store for the shooting.

So Aguilar was not a loner. I wonder if his friends were part of the local trenchcoat-wearing set.

------------------------

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/ma...mall-shooting-update-20140312,0,1452806.story

According to a news conference by the chief, Aguilar entered the store at 11:01am and went to the dressing room. He exited the dressing room at about 11:14-15am to begin his rampage. So he spent almost 15 minutes in that dressing room. There is no evidence he took some clothes from the Zumiez clothing racks into the dressing room. If you were a clerk at that store, wouldn't you be slightly perturbed by someone who just walks into your dressing rooms and just stays there for 15 minutes? Maybe the clerks were preoccupied, but apparently there were no other customers in the store when Aguilar started shooting; so it couldn't have been too busy for the clerks not to have noticed his actions. No one bothers to ask why the clerks apparently didn't react to Aguilar's presence.
Police made an extensive timeline for the suspect's movements the morning of the shooting based mostly on video cam evidence from the various businesses he visited. Interestingly, they don't show any video stills of Aguilar after he started shooting, in the store or out in front of the store.

 

[popsicle]

Zumiez store at Columbia Mall where 2 were killed reopens

The store's new design honors the two employees who were killed with tiles that have their initials - 'B' for Brianna Benlolo and 'T' for Tyler Johnson.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/255629...all-where-2-were-killed-reopens#axzz32Fq57Hvy

https://twitter.com/DaveFox5DC/status/468732555181977600/photo/1
"B" and "T" tiles recognizes Brianna and Tyler at Zumiez at Mall in Columbia, MD pic.twitter.com/B1aRwgaeCG