‘CREEPY’ SUSPECT IN MALL KILLINGS FREQUENTLY IN TROUBLE WITH LAW
OAK HARBOR, Wash. The 20-yearold man suspected of killing five people with a rifle at a Macy’s makeup counter had a string of run-ins with the law in recent years, including charges he assaulted his stepfather, and was described by a neighbour as so “creepy” and “obnoxious” 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 half-dozen criminal cases in Island County, not far from Burlington, Wash., since 2013. Authorities said the gunman in the attack at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, about 125 kilometres south of Vancouver, opened fire Friday night, killing a man and four females ranging from a teen to a senior citizen. The killer then fled. Cetin said nothing and appeared “zombielike” while taken into custody on a sidewalk outside his apartment complex, some 50 kilometres away in Oak Harbor, by a sheriff’s officer who recognized him as the suspect in the rampage, authorities said. Cetin immigrated to the U.S. from Turkey and is a legal permanent resident, officials said. On Sunday, investigators searched Cetin’s vehicle and the apartment complex and were seen carrying boxes from a rear, upstairs unit. Amber Cathey, 21, lived in an apartment next to 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. Cathey said she blocked him on Snapchat after he sent her a photo of his crotch. “He was really creepy, rude and obnoxious,” Cathey said. Attempts to reach Cetin’s family for comment by phone and social media weren’t immediately successful.