A terrifying shooting spree 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 dead included a Skagit County sheriff’s deputy and the wounded included a Washington State Patrol trooper who was shot while trying to catch the shooter on Interstate 5, the state patrol said. A suspect in the shootings, a recently released convict with a history of mental illness, has surrendered.
State Department of Corrections officials identified the man as Isaac Zamora, 28, who had served a six-month Skagit County jail sentence for drug possession.
Zamora was released on Aug. 6 and was under community supervision by Corrections officers, spokesman Chad Lewis said.
State Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail said Zamora had reported as instructed and passed tests for drug and alcohol use.
“I want to extend our profound sorrow and heartfelt sympathy for the victims of the shootings in Skagit County,” Vail said in a statement.
Washington State 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,” Gregoire said late on Tuesday night.
Zamora’s mother said she had tried repeatedly to get help for her son, whom she described as “desperately mentally ill.”
“We’re so devastated for the families,” Dennise Zamora said by telephone. “I wish it would have been him or me that was killed. That’s how deeply I feel about it.”
The slain deputy was identified as Anne Jackson, 40, whom Mrs Zamora described as a sympathetic figure who had tried to help the family in the past.
The dead were found at multiple crime scenes. They included the deputy shot while responding to a call and a second person killed at the same location near the small town of Alger; two construction workers found shot nearby, and a third body found a few houses away, Trooper Keith Leary said.
A motorist was shot and killed on Interstate 5 as the suspect fled south.
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