Washington Shooting Spree Leaves 6 Dead
A terrifying shooting spree in ‘that stretched from a small northwest Washington town onto the state’s busiest highway left six people dead and at least two more wounded on Tuesday,’ the Associated Press reported earlier today.
Among those who died were a Skagit Country sheriff’s deputy and a Washington State Patrol trooper who was killed by the shooter when he tried to catch him on Interstate 5.
The shooter, Isaac Zamora, 28, served six months in prison for drug possession. He was released August 6 and was under community supervision by Corrections officers.
State Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail said Zamora had taken and passed tests for drug and alcohol use.
Governor ‘Chris Gregoire called for an independent third-party review to be led by the head of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs and a prosecutor to be appointed by the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.’
“I will be directing them to look into how this case was handled and provide an initial report to me within 10 days,” he said.
Zamora’s mother told journalists she had repeatedly tried to find help for her son. She described him as “desperately mentally ill.”
“We’re so devastated for the families,” Dennise Zamora told the AP. “I wish it would have been him or me that was killed. That’s how deeply I feel about it.”
It seems that her son went on quite a lengthy shooting spree. Bodies were found on several locations along the path he took Tuesday. Two construction workers, for instance, were purposefully killed at one location, another body - that of a motorcyclist - was found at Interstate 5.
Zamora started shooting at around 2 PM. He was arrested at 4.30 PM. This means he had 2.5 hours to kill innocent people, while fleeing from the police.
