Wash. shooting suspect: ‘Creepy,’ multiple arrests, disputes
OAK HARBOR, Wash. — The 20year-old man suspected of killing five people with a rifle at a Macy’s makeup counter Friday had a string of run-ins with the law in recent years, including charges he assaulted his stepfather, and was described by a neighbor as so “creepy, rude and obnoxious” that she kept a Taser by her front door.
As investigators tried to piece together information on Arcan Cetin, who was arrested Saturday evening after a nearly 24-hour manhunt, a picture emerged of a troubled young man. Court records show more than a halfdozen criminal cases in Island County alone since 2013.
Authorities said the gunman in the attack at the Cascade Mall in Burlington opened fire in the department store’s cosmetics department Friday night, killing a man and four females ranging from a teenager to a senior citizen. The killer then fled.
Mr. Cetin said nothing and appeared “zombie-like” when he was taken into custody on a sidewalk outside his apartment complex some 30 miles away in Oak Harbor by a sheriff’s officer who recognized him as the suspect in the
rampage, authorities said.
Mr. Cetin immigrated to the U.S. from Turkey and is a legal permanent resident, officials said.
As the surrounding area absorbed news of the arrest, critical questions remained, including the gunman’s motive. The FBI said early Saturday that there was no indication the shooting was terrorism, but local authorities said later in the day that they were ruling nothing out.
On Sept. 17, a 20-year-old man stabbed 10 people at a Minnesota mall before being shot to death by an off-duty police officer. Authorities said they are investigating the attack by Dahir Ahmed Adan as a possible act of terrorism.
On Sunday, investigators searched Mr. Cetin’s vehicle and the apartment complex and were seen carrying boxes from a rear, upstairs unit. The four-unit building was surrounded with yellow police tape. Detectives would not say what they found.
Amber Cathey, 21, lived in an apartment next to Mr. Cetin for the past three months and said she was so frightened by him that she complained to apartment management and kept a stun gun handy. Ms. Cathey said she blocked him on Snapchat after he sent her a photo of his crotch.
“He was really creepy, rude and obnoxious,” Ms. Cathey said. She said she would try to avoid him by walking the long way around to her apartment if she saw his car in the parking lot. The two were in high school together as well, and Ms. Cathey said he acted the same way then.
High school friends and neighbors also described Mr. Cetin as a troubled person who made vulgar comments toward women and who was given to inappropriately touching female students.
The Seattle Times reported that court records show Mr. Cetin in 2014 and 2015 faced three charges of assaulting his stepfather. The newspaper said Mr. Cetin also was arrested on drunken driving charges. It gave no details on when the arrests took place or how the cases may have been resolved.
The court records also include notes stating that Mr. Cetin was “in treatment” or receiving “counseling” as far back as a year and a half ago.
In the assault case, Mr. Cetin was told by a judge last December that he was not to possess a gun, the newspaper reported.
Attempts to reach Mr. Cetin’s family for comment by phone and social media weren’t immediately successful.
Social media accounts apparently belonging to Mr. Cetin showed he had a fondness for the military and video games. He posted on Facebook last year that he was molested by a relative in Turkey as a young boy — and that he wanted to get what happened “off my chest.”
A Twitter account showed, among other things, selfies, photos of him in younger years and pictures of Turkish food. He once participated in paintball and said he “can’t wait for Halo 5,” the first-person shooter video game. He also tweeted: “Shout out to the ROTC peeps.” A Facebook account showed he liked military-related sites.
Mr. Cetin also appeared to have blogs on the site Tumblr that had not been updated in many months.
The Washington Post contributed.