Prosecutor: Suspect in Washington mall shooting found dead
Arcan Cetin was found hanging in an apparent suicide Sunday evening
The man charged with killing five people at a mall in Washington state last year was found dead in his jail cell Sunday evening.
Prosecutor Rich Weyrich tolds the Skagit Valley Herald that 20-year-old Arcan Cetin was found hanging in an apparent suicide.
On September 23, Cetin shot a teenage girl, a man and three women in a department store at Cascade Mall in Burlington, north of Seattle, police said.
The names of the shooting victims were Sarai Lara, 16, of Mount Vernon; Shayla Martin, 52, of Mount Vernon; Belinda Galde, 64, and her mother, 95-year-old Beatrice Dotson, both of Arlington; and Wilton 'Chuck' Eagan, 61, of Lake Stevens, reported the Seattle Times.
His family said he suffered from psychiatric problems.
Cetin admitted that he committed the killings, according to court documents.
According to Rosemary Kaholokula, Sagit County's chief criminal deputy prosecutor, Cetin had been evaluated by doctors at Western State Hospital. She did not share the evaluation, but said that his defense was looking to have him evaluated by another mental health expert, according to the Times.
Neither the prosecutor's office nor Cetin's attorney immediately returned messages from The Associated Press seeking confirmation of his death.
Cetin had been held in the Snohomish County Jail for about a month awaiting results of a mental competency evaluation.
On September 23, Cetin took three legally purchased guns from his father and drove to Macy's where his ex-girlfriend once worked and started shooting before dumping the weapons and escaping on foot.
A day later, he was apprehended by police 30 miles from the crime scene, near his home in Oak Harbor, reported KING 5 News.
Cetin's former classmate, Uhlaine Finnigan, 19, of Washington, spoke exclusively to DailyMail.com in September about her memories of the suspect.
'I didn't think he'd take it as far as mass murder but I knew he was trouble,' Finnigan said.
Finnigan said she was headed to Cascade Mall that night, but at the last minute decided not to go.
'We did just get back from the Bellingham Mall, so that could be some of our influence.
'Knowing my friends and I we would of been at Macy's, too,' she said.
The 19-year-old described Cetin as a loner who appeared troubled to her.
Cetin attempted suicide by swallowing medication in November 2015, at which time mental-health evaluators ranked him as at serious risk for self-harm, court records show.