Back with some more info on the weekend happening at the Tacoma Mall.
To start, it has been released that Maldonado called the local 911 call center on his cell phone right before entering the mall and opening fire. After telling the call receiver what he was going to do, they asked where he was going to do this, he replied
“Just follow the screams�
In contrast to all this, the now inmate Maldonado says that he didn’t mean to shoot anyone and was surprised when he was told that he actually hit six people.
Maldonado has been charged with four counts of kidnapping and eight counts of first-degree assault, instead of what I would think would be more appropriate attempted murder, and is being held on $2 Million bail.
According to a Farnham’s Quips link I found at the Heartless Libertarian’s place (he also has some more links on the story), it has been confirmed that Maldonado did have an AK but started firing with a badly maintained 9mm CZ pistol and switched to the AK only after a very brave individual attempted to stop him with physical force and was shot four times by Maldonado and the CZ malfunctioned.
The man who attempted to disarm Maldonado is the person who is in critical condition at a local hospital.
It is unconfirmed whether Maldonado actually hit anyone with rounds from the AK.
On one of the local talk radio shows, a gentleman called in and stated that he was in the mall with his family at the time of the shooting and although he is licensed to carry concealed in Washington and had his weapon on him, he opted to make sure his family was safely outside the mall instead of engaging Maldonado. He claimed to have been in a different section of the mall than where the Sam Goody store Maldonado was shooting in front of was located.
In my opinion, the guy did the right thing to make sure his loved ones were safe as that is his first obligation with the saving of the asses of non-family members who couldn’t take it upon themselves to provide for their own protection being a secondary consideration.
It is still a point of contention among everyone I’ve heard talk about this locally as to whether this gentleman would have been legally able to go towards that location instead of doing what he did. I have sent an email to the office of the Washington State Attorney General, Rob McKenna, to please issue his opinion on the subject. If you are a resident of this state, you might think of doing the same. We need this clearly defined for the future.
Maldonado’s friends, especially his ex-girlfriend must truly be loving the media attention since they just keep coming out with more and more whining about how he was ‘depressed’ and ‘acting strange’ for a few weeks before his acts on Sunday.
Like I said yesterday, Maldonado’s defense attorney is already using these suggestions from the friends as a way to build a case of temporary insanity brought on by ‘depression’.
What with Maldonado’s words prior to him going in and lighting up the mall, both to his girlfriend and to the 911 call taker, as well as his point blank shooting of the person who tried to stop him, I am surprised that attempted murder charges were not filed.
But then again, this is the state where beating an infant to death is only considered manslaughter so long as you state to the police that you weren’t trying to beat the child to death. So I guess that as long as Maldonado keeps saying that “he didn’t mean to hurt anyone by shooting them� he’ll get to keep the lesser charges.
With him being 20 years of age now, even if he is convicted of all charges and made to serve the sentences consecutively (and isn’t shuttled into a ‘mental rehabilitation facility’), he’ll be out of prison before he turns 50.
Washington State justice at it best. Sadly.
I seem to recall from when I got my CHL in Washington, that there is a State law that says that shooting at someone is automatically considered deadly force, so you can’t say “I was only shooting to wound him…”
Looks like it’s contained in RCW 9A.16.010.
Gotta love packing.org.