Two are dead after a gunman, Darion Marcus Aguilar, entered a Columbia Maryland Mall on Saturday and killed two people, leaving five others injured. Police are still searching for a motive for the shooting that occurred before Aguilar killed himself.
According to what officials have been able to piece together, Aguilar took a cab to the mall. He apparently wandered around the mall for about an hour before he reached the second-floor area where the shooting occurred.
One of the dead is 21-year-old Brianna Benlolo who was an employee at the skate shop where the shooting took place. Friends described her as a fun loving person who was a great artist. Also, dead is 25-year-old Tyler Johnson. Both were employees at Zumiez where the shooting took place.
The only other person injured by Aguilar’s shooting spree was shot in the foot. The other four people with injuries were hurt in the resulting chaos as people hustled to shelter in place.
One of the malls employees summed up the feeling of many saying, “This country needs a lot of help. When somebody is that angry to go to a mall on a Saturday morning and shoot people. We’re in a lot of trouble… To push people to those limits where things like that happen makes no sense.”
Meanwhile, United States Representative from Texas who serves as the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said on Sunday that the latest shooting highlighted the vulnerability of malls.
You can’t have a security lockdown at our malls,” he said in an interview with CBS, “but things like canines, a heavier canine presence are very good at detecting explosives.”
Police were within the mall within two minutes after the first call. Their heroic efforts in the face of grave danger is credited by many for saving many more lives in the mall that was filled with hundreds of shoppers.