Washington mall shooting: 20-year-old suspect arrested

The suspect in a shooting at a Washington state mall that left five dead and sparked an intensive, nearly 24-hour manhunt is in custody, authorities said.

Washington state police identified the suspect via Twitter as 20-year-old Arcan Cetin, of Oak Harbour, Washington.

Al Jazeera stated that authorities announced earlier that the suspect had been apprehended on Saturday evening.

A gunman opened fire at the Cascade Mall,  in Burlington, Washington, on Friday night, killing four females and a man before fleeing.

One of the victims was a 16-year-old girl. Sarai Lara’s mother told The Seattle Times that her daughter had survived cancer as a young girl and was a happy student.

Evangelina Lara told the paper that she was shopping at the Cascade Mall with Sarai and her younger sister, but they split up; Sarai went to Macy’s looking for pants.

The first emergency call came in just before 7pm on a busy Friday night at the Cascade Mall: A man with a rifle was shooting at people in the Macy’s department store.

By the time police arrived moments later, four people were dead, and the gunman was gone, last seen walking towards a local highway.

A fifth victim, a man, died in the early morning hours on Saturday as police finished sweeping the 434,000-square-foot building.