10:33 PM PST on Sunday, November 20, 2005

KING5.com

TACOMA - After firing several shots and taking hostages, a man at Tacoma Mall gave himself up to police, ending an afternoon of chaos at the busy shopping destination. At least seven people went to area hospitals and one person remained in critical condition Sunday night at Tacoma General Hospital.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department says the man fired several shots at about noon Sunday, then took hostages inside a Sam Goody store. Shortly before 4 p.m., police took him into custody.

We are continuing to update this story by the minute. Please see below for the latest details.

A spokesman at Tacoma General Hospital said one person had arrived in critical condition. Five patients have been treated and released from area hospitals and one remains in satisfactory condition at Allenmore Hospital, also in Tacoma. Information on the type and extent of each person's injuries was not available.

At the same time, people evacuated from the mall have been ushered away from the area because of a possible suspicious package which turned out to be a bag full of clothes near the suspect's car, which is now cordoned off while the bomb squad checks out his vehicle.

Here's the latest as the story develops:

10:23 p.m.

KING 5's Elisa Hahn reports that this morning, Maldonado reportedly sent a text message to his ex girlfriend, Tiffany Robison.

She says she got two frightening and cryptic phone calls from him and one chilling text message.

Robison said Maldonado first called to say he was sorry for all the things he did and that he had to go.

“He said he was going to either a really good place or a really bad place,” she said.

Just before noon, she said, Maldonado sent her a text message, which read: “Today is the day that the world will know my anger. Today is the day the world will feel my pain. Today is the day I will be heard!,” he wrote.

Robison then heard from him one more time.

“He called me about an hour later saying that he had shot the mall up and was in Sam Goody holding people hostage.”

Robison said she called police and rushed down to the mall.

She said she thinks Maldonado’s behavior might be influenced by drugs.

She broke up with him six months ago because she feared for her safety.

9:20 p.m.

Records at the Pierce County jail now say that the suspect in the case, Dominick Sergio Maldonado, was booked in the jail for investigation of assault and kidnapping. KING 5 News has learned that Maldonado was a graduate of Lincoln High School in Tacoma.

8:38 p.m.

Of the seven people, all but the most seriously injured person, now at Tacoma General, have since been released from the hospital.

Colin Agostini

Witness Colin Agostini took this camera phone image of police in the mall.

8:15 p.m.

Gov. Christine Gregoire released the followoing statement late Sunday afternoon:

"I'm relieved the suspect is in custody and this terrible incident was resolved without any loss of life. This was a terrifying situation for the families, individuals and employees who were in the Tacoma Mall. I'm especially concerned about the six people who were injured by the gunman, including the victim who remains in critical condition, and I will pray for their speedy recovery. The men and women of the Tacoma Police Department, the Tacoma Fire Department, Washington State Patrol, Pierce County Sheriff's Department and other local law enforcement agencies prevented a potentially much worse outcome. They are our heroes today and I want to thank them for their quick action and professionalism."

8:11 p.m.

A KING 5 search of court records indicates the suspect has had several run ins with the law, going back to 1998, when he was just 14 years old.

The offenses range from burglary to trafficking in stolen property.

6:41 p.m.

A search of the car police believe to belong to the man is being held up for lack of a search warrant. Also Mall officials say the Tacoma Mall will not be reopening tonight.

6:34 p.m.

Police now say the gunman is a 20-year-old man with an extensive juvenile record. SWAT teams have converged on his home in the 3500 block of East Grandview, not far from the mall.

6:22 p.m.

The details of exactly how the gunman was taken into custody remained few Sunday evening, but the Associated Press reported that the gunman surrended to a SWAT team by walking out of the store on his own shortly before 4 p.m. No shots were fired.

5:45 p.m.

Police have brought in a bomb-sniffing dog to help assess the danger of a car that police believe to be the suspect's. A large area around the car has been taped off, apparently out of concern that the vehicle may have some sort of explosive device in it. People with cars in adjacent parking lots have also been prevented from getting at them.

5:39 p.m.

The news of the mall shooting has dominated the local media all day long, but the shooting must have been news to some people. KING 5's Eric Wilkinson reported just a minute ago that there was still plenty of traffic from people trying to get into the mall to do some shopping.

5:32 p.m.

Of the six people that were taken to hospitals in Tacoma, two have been treated and released, one from St. Joseph Hospital in Tacoma and one from St. Clare Hospital in Lakewood. Two people were at Allenmore Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, one at St. Joseph's is reported in satisfactory condition and one is in critical condition at Tacoma General. Two people were also released after being treated from the Good Samaritan hospital.

5:25 p.m.

Lauren Daley and her mother tell KING 5 reporter Eric Wilkinson they they were both locked down in different stores for two hours in the mall and were able to talk by cell phone.

"We were able to keep calling back and forth, so that was kind of a blessing," Jeane Daley said.

5:13 p.m.

Ron Colston, whose account of the gunman is mentioned below also said that one of the most unnerving aspects of the gunman was that he appeared to be smiling while shooting, according to KING 5 reporter Deb Feldman.

5:10 p.m.

Police have isolated a green Oldsmobile which they believe to be the suspect's car and aren't letting anyone near it. Live trucks from KING 5 News were not allowed to be within 100 yards of the car for fear that the signal from the truck could set up a device that may be inside it.

Also, information about the condition of those shot has been slow in coming due to privacy laws, but KING 5's Paul Aker just reported that several witness reports agree that one person appeared to have been shot at least four times.

4:57 p.m.

Ron Colston says he was in the mall with his wife and two grandchildren when said he heard several pops. When he looked up, he said he saw a man standing in the hallway.

Colston said the man was holding what he thought was an AK-47 assault rifle and saw him fire around 15 times total.

"I told my daughter and my grandson to run and they ran out the door, toward the back and, I looked for my wife and I got my wife and granddaughter out the door and we were hiding in the back in a hallway," Colston said.

Colston said a woman came in behind them with a bullet wound in her leg.

"We got bandages on her and gauze and stuff to stop the bleeding and we got blankets on her," he said.

4:33 p.m.

The mother of one of the hostages was outside the mall Sunday afternoon after the gunman was taken into custody.

Susan Serveau said her daughter had called her from the store to say that she was inside, was being held hostage and was very scared, but couldn't talk long because she needed to keep the line open. After he daughter was released, Serveau struggled tearfully between emotions.

"I'm mortified, I'm horrified, but I'm happy now that she's OK," she said.

4:07 p.m.

One caller to NorthWest Cable News said she made eye contact with man who was doing the shooting as wearing black slacks, a white shirt and close cropped blond hair. "Very clean cut," she said.

She called the incident surreal and said "When I first heard the shooting, I thought 'this is a joke, this cannot be happening," she said.

4:01 p.m.

All hostages are out of the building and none were hurt, according to Tacoma Police spokesman Mark Fulguhm. The suspect was arrested inside the mall, but Fulguhm had few details about how the situation ended. He did describe the gunman as a young man, but did not know his age. During the incident, people apparently showed up at the mall who knew the suspect.

Police will now scour the inside of the mall to determine how many shots were fired and just what happened.

3:51 p.m.

Pierce County Sheriff's Paul Pastor tells KING 5 reporter Jim Forman that the suspect is in custody. There were no details immediately available on how the hostage situation was resolved. A press conference is expected to be held soon.

3:41 p.m.

Stacy Wilson, 29, of Bonney Lake, was walking from J.C. Penney to Macy's when she heard a popping noise.

"I thought a kiosk was falling over."

She turned around and "I saw the gunman randomly shooting. I ran with a group of women to Victoria's Secret."

She said they all crouched behind a wall in the store, and when the shooting stopped an employee ran out and closed a security gate at the front.

Wilson said she heard about 15 to 20 shots. "He was walking backward and shooting. I couldn't see his face," Wilson said. "Everyone was running and screaming."

3:29 p.m.

Caller after caller to KING 5 News and Northwest Cable News witnessed the shooting from different parts of the mall. A rare few at the far end of the mall have said they heard nothing, but many more described hearing multiple gunshots. Some people saw others fall after they believed they were hit by gunfire.

Police say they are actively trying to make contact with the gunman inside the store to find out what he wants. He said that contact with the suspect had been intermittent, in part because members of the media had been calling in to the store and tying up the line. The Associated Press earlier made contact with an employee inside the store who said he was being held hostage.

Fulguhm said there is an area to the south end of the mall where people trying to make contact with others who may have been at the mall can gather.

3:16 p.m.

In the first official confirmation from police of what happened , Police spokesman Mark Fulguhm says a man walked into the mall with an assault rifle around noon and began randomly firing shots.

Fulguhm says four to six people were injured and all were taken to local hospitals. Two or three people are being held inside the Sam Goody store. No one is reported to have died in the incident.

Fulguhm did not have any age or description of the suspect.

3:05 p.m.

A nine-year-old boy was apparently among the hostages early on, but was released.

3:01 pm.

A record store employee inside the mall said he's being held hostage when a reporter for the Associated called the Sam Goody store where a gunman was reportedly holed up.

"We're being held hostage," said Joe Hudson, who answered the phone and identified himself as an employee at the store inside the Tacoma Mall.

Hudson said little else, but could be heard telling someone that he was talking to the AP. Then he hung up.

2:58 p.m.

The 38th Street off ramp is closed and I-5 is backed up near the mall.

Before 2:40 p.m.

Numerous callers into KING 5 described the scene.

Shopper Dick Waldo said he saw a person running by and shooting as he ran.

“An individual had just come running through a cross section and I heard some gunfire so I just told everybody to drop,” Waldo said, “And then the individual started running toward the other end of the mall.”

“Chaos just happened,” Waldo said as the shots were being fired.

Waldo said he thought at least one person was hit and within an hour, police could be seen rushing a person out of the mall on a stretcher toward a waiting paramedic unit.

Mall employee Rebecca Lawson was outside the mall in the parking lot when the incident occurred shortly around 12:15 p.m. and said a colleague told her that she had heard 10 shots fired in the area outside the food court.

Other witnesses described as few as five or as many as 18 shots fired. Many described a gunman using some sort of semi-automatic style weapon.

Lawson said that police appeared to be evacuating the stores in the mall one by one.

KING

Police and fire units flooded Tacoma Mall's parking lot.