On Saturday, January 26, 2014, Darion Marcus Aguilar, age 19 and an individual with no known criminal record or other red flags, entered the Zumiez store and starting firing away. By the time the police arrived, he had killed two people and wounded others, then had turned the gun on himself. The mall was closed, of course. More interesting, none of the evacuated shoppers were allowed to drive their vehicles home; school buses and other buses were brought in to take the shoppers home.
Backpacks with primitive IED's were found inside the mall. In fact, for many hours the police did not approach the shooter's body out of concerns that the body might be booby trapped.
Who is Darion Marcus Aguilar? This photo, supposedly from James Hubert Blake High School's yearbook, has surfaced:
Contrary to reports, Zumiez is more than a "skate store." Rrecently, the store's main display has been one of snowboarding, perhaps in advance of the Sochi Olympics.
An eyewitness interviewed by CNN the afternoon of the murders stated, "The guy looked either Hispanic or Arab." I heard that interview myself when I was tuned into CNN so as to follow the events at Columbia Mall. CNN never replayed that interview, but continued to replay multiple times any interviews blaming the gun.
Over and over again, despite the police statements to the contrary, various news media kept labeling the slayings as "workplace violence" or "a relationship crime."
Was Darion Marcus Aguilar a jihadist? Maybe, maybe not. But it seems to me that the mainstream media were doing all that they could to spin the story into something it appears that it was not, i.e., "a relationship killing."
I think MSM was totally caught off guard with the manner in which a blogger was the first to (publically) identify the Tsarnaev brothers prior to official release of information for the Boston Marathon bombing. So additional containment measures for bigger stories which might relate to ThreatCon may now be in play.
ReplyDeleteI find the script for public consumption troubling. The grandfather spoke on behalf of the deceased granddaughter. He did not mention the shooter was an "ex-boyfriend". So where did that little unsubstantiated factoid surface? There has been no evidence produced to substantiate the claim. No witnesses distressed about the link, no family confirmation of relational link.
Perhaps the man did know the woman. But if it was mere domestic violence, why the higher level of response: Vehicles forcibly abandoned in the parking lot, buses to ferry people home, crime scene perimeter extended far beyond the standard for forensic containment of evidence?
AOW, I am working off a new paradigm in my own research, using a psychological tool which I have been developing and refining for analyses of documents and behavior related to jihad. Should you find any concrete information regarding this event, please send it along.
(Tool name: The Adolphus Complex)
Tammy
Tammy,
Deletewhy the higher level of response: Vehicles forcibly abandoned in the parking lot, buses to ferry people home, crime scene perimeter extended far beyond the standard for forensic containment of evidence?
No kidding!
I note that none of the mainstream media are questioning that higher level of response.
It appears that Aguilar specifically targeted Zumiez:
ReplyDeletePolice said Aguilar took a taxi to the Mall in Columbia in suburban Baltimore on Saturday morning and entered the building near Zumiez,...He went downstairs to a food court directly below the store, then returned less than an hour later, dumped the backpack in a dressing room and started shooting.
I am so thankful the NSA is data mining my phone to prevent such things as this from happening. And I can readily see how Maryland's ban on firearms is working well. All in all, everything is just fine. Go back to sleep, America. Oh, and that Russian college student with atomic weapons ... never really happened. Just more right-winger lies.
ReplyDeleteWatching the media tying themselves into knots was amazing -- even for cynical me!
DeleteThere have been several shootings recently. Lots of folks taking part in out national sport.
ReplyDeleteSo jump to conclusions on this one because a scary Muslim was involved rather than look at the facts that this profiles similar to the standard deranged shooting.
Duck,
DeleteI am not jumping to conclusions. See the labels for this post.
But I am pointing out that the mainstream media did -- even after the first warning from the Howard County Police specifically warning the media to quit speculating that the slayings were a relationship killing.
Damion Marcus Aguilar may have been one of the standard deranged. However, at this point there is no evidence suggesting that he was mentally ill.
Pursuant to my comment above (WaPo): "Md. mall shooter Darion Aguilar a ‘good kid’; no criminal record or known mental issues." Read it.
ReplyDeletelong time no see hun..of course the media will silence this and we will never know the truth one way or the other! Happy Monday my friend!:)
ReplyDeleteSpeaking to a friend on the telephone today she stated: "I hope the NSA is not listening." Ever with a sense of humor, I replied "Bomb. Bomb. Bomb." There ya go! Netted into something more advanced than Carnivore, spit out onto a bored analysts' desk.... and the next Tsarnaev brothers are busy stealing pressure cookers from garage sales.
ReplyDeleteCall me a cynic.... smile
Tammy
It seems there is no such thing as journalist these days who do research and corroberate the facts before reporting them as news. Everyone in the "news" business has an agenda and every story must fit that agenda.
ReplyDeleteI believe my comment was appropriate, AOW.
ReplyDeleteSome unsourced picture which contains an Arabic name from IBA is hardly a credible source.
Trying to stretch this to make a connection to an Olympic terror attack is also pointless. A lot of boarding stores carry winter sports gear in the off months.
But let's just assume that the MSM is covering up something or withholding the story even though we should have learned by now (this type of thing happens often enough) that a firm story takes a couple days to develop.
The owner of a skateboard store a mile and a half from my home was killed in front of his store this morning. Are the local jihadies finally getting ready to strike?
The owner of a skateboard store a mile and a half from my home was killed in front of his store this morning. Are the local jihadies finally getting ready to strike?
DeleteDon't be silly. But if backpacks with IED's were involved, them maybe you have cause for concern.
The picture didn't originate at IBA. I saw it elsewhere -- perhaps from a Twitter feed, perhaps elsewhere. Thus far, I haven't seen the picture debunked.
There are many unknowns related to Darion Marcus Aguilar. Let's see what shakes out. The text of my blog post presents the facts. I did neglect to mention, however, that he took a taxi to the mall.
One more fact has come out: a few hours after Darion Marcus Aguilar left home on Saturday: his mother filed a missing persons report. The police have now stated that when they read the young man's journal, they became concerned for his safety -- concerns that were, at the time, not related to the shooting.
Let's see what shakes out. The Howard County Police are analyzing the seized computer and documents.
The investigation will run its course. I’m sure others are watching the way police handled the case, how the people responded to the event, and the ease of accessing soft targets in America. Meanwhile, it appears Mr. Bush may have given the American people bad advice. He told them to go to the mall.
ReplyDeleteI'm very glad that Mr. AOW and I were not at that mall -- with our handicapped van, in effect, in police custody until the following day.
DeleteAl Qaeda and others of that ilk have repeatedly threatened to strike soft targets. If what happened at the Columbia Mall was a jihad attack, denial of the reality will go only so far.
Thus far, the Howard County Police have been quite impressive -- a lot more impressive than the yapping mainstream media, which disseminate breaking speculation like crazy.
Remember, Sam... it was Joe 'I Gotta Squirrel In My Pants' Biden who suggested, "Buy a shotgun!"
DeleteI haven't followed this one closely. Did he use a shotgun?
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
Debbie,
DeleteYes, he used a shotgun, which he had purchased legally last month at a gun store near his home.
I followed the story closely because I have friends in Maryland.
I wouldn't have paid nearly as much attention were it not for the media's constant insistence upon "a relationship killing" -- even after the police chief said that there was no evidence to indicate that the killing was indeed of that type. It also irritates me that the media keep saying "skate store," when Zumiez is much more than that.
This morning, I found this information:
[Howard County Police Chief] McMahon says there is no evidence the shooter, Darion Aguilar, ever applied for a job or worked at Zumiez, the store where the shooting occurred. He says that if the incident were "domestic-related" he would think investigators would know more about that by this point.
At this point, the story is not national news, so I'm following development through local media outlets.
There is no digital footprint for Aguilar.
ReplyDeleteUnusual -- to say the least -- for someone of his age.
I'm guessing that the digital footprint was scrubbed, then his name released.