Darion Marcus Aguilar, 19, of College Park, was identified as the gunman by police Sunday morning. He took a cab to the Columbia mall an hour before the shooting. Police have yet to establish a connection between the shooter and the victims.
HOWARD COUNTY POLICE VIA TWITTER
Maryland police have identified Darion Marcus Aguilar, 19, of College Park, Md., as the gunman in the horrifying mall shooting that killed two people and injured five Saturday.
Maryland police have identified the gunman who killed two people and injured five more in a horrifying mall shooting Saturday before killing himself.
“We may never be back to 100% normal but we are resilient,” said Howard County Police Chief William McMahon said in a press conference Sunday evening.
Darion Marcus Aguilar, 19, of College Park, Md., took a cab to the mall in Columbia at 10:15 a.m. Saturday and then killed Brianna Benlolo, 21, of College Park, and Tyler Johnson, 25, of Ellicott City, who worked at Zumiez, located on the second floor of the Mall in Columbia, above the food court, police said.
BALTIMORE SUN
Police have yet to make a connection between gunman Aguilar (pictured) and his two victims. Cops say he did not have a criminal history.
Police have yet to make a connection between the shooter and his two victims.
“There’s still some speculation that there has been some romantic involvement. We have not been able to establish that,” McMahon said.
These rumors have upset the victims’ families, he said.
Police say Aguilar (pictured) took a cab to the Mall in Columbia at 10:15 a.m. and then killed Brianna Benlolo, 21, and Tyler Johnson, 25.
Authorities searched Aguilar’s house and found a journal where he expressed general unhappiness with his life, according to McMahon.
Police have maintained a strong presence around the mall ever since the shooting. They are making sure patrons recover belongings they left behind and that grief counseling will be available to anyone who needs it.
Aguilar’s house in College Park, Md., on Sunday. Police said the gunman lived with his mother, and that they seized computers and documents from his home.
The mall will reopen 1 p.m. Monday with two memorials to honor the victims.
Police say that Aguilar unleashed terror in this “cornerstone of our community” after waiting in a “confined area” for an hour after arriving.
Five other people — one who was shot in the foot — were treated at a local hospital and released Saturday. Police said the gunman fired between six and eight shots with a 12-gauge shotgun he bought in December.
BRIANNA BENLOLO/FACEBOOK
Brianna Benlolo, 21, was one of two mall employees who were shot at the suburban Baltimore Mall in Columbia.
Police said the gunman lived with his mother, and that they seized computers and documents from his home. He had brought a backpack that was filled with two “unsophisticated” devices that appeared to be attempts to make homemade explosives, McMahon said.
He did not have a criminal history, McMahon said.
Aguilar was found with a large amount of ammunition on him. Police searched the mall overnight Saturday and determined there were no explosives.
Tyler Johnson, the 25-year-old victim in the Columbia mall shooting.
Police arrived at the sprawling mall only two minutes after the first 911 calls were placed at 11:15 a.m. and secured the shopping center by 1 p.m.
Benlolo’s grandfather, John Feins, said in a telephone interview from Florida that his granddaughter had a 2-year-old son and that the job at Zumiez was her first since she went back to work after her son’s birth.
Police talk in a parking lot outside the Mall in Columbia in Maryland, where a gunman killed two and injured five before taking his own life.
“She was all excited because she was the manager there,” he said.
He said he had spoken with his daughter, Brianna’s mother, earlier in the day, but didn’t know who the gunman was or whether the person knew his granddaughter.
“It’s senseless. It’s totally, totally senseless,” he said.
The shooter killed Briana Benlolo (pictured).
h/t – nydailynews
