Who Was The Mall Shooting Suspect in Burlington, WA?

©Natalie Keshing
Editor-in-Chief
http://www.natswritings.com

In the news, the man who shot and killed 5 people at a busy shopping mall last Friday was not Spanish or Mexican initially reported by the news. I didn’t think he was. His name is Arcan Cetin. Arcan Cetin is a very unique name. He and his family immigrated from Adana, Turkey to the United States. The authorities reported Arcan Cetin is Muslim.

Arcan Cetin was by all accounts a very troubled young man. He has had numerous run-ins with the law including assaulting his stepfather several times. But that only explains part of the story. What exactly led this young man to walk into a public mall at a nationwide store like Macy’s while women were working behind the makeup counters just doing their jobs on a normal Friday evening. Arcan Cetin came in and chose to shoot and kill 5 people, 4 women and 1 man.

He was described by a neighbor as “creepy, rude and obnoxious” and she kept a Taser by her front door. That does sound alarming and serious regarding this young man’s behavior and now obviously he was a great danger to the public. The young man’s court records show more than a half-dozen criminal cases in Island County alone since 2013. 

Officials said Cetin immigrated to the U.S. from Turkey and is a legal permanent resident of the United States. The authorities were not calling this mall shooting a terrorist case. The fact that he shot 5 people openly in a public place while other people were running for their lives; makes this a terrorist soft target shooting.

“Amber Cathey, 21, lived in an apartment next to Cetin for the past three months and said she was so frightened by him that she complained to apartment management and kept a stun gun handy. Cathey said she blocked him on Snapchat after he sent her a photo of his crotch.”

“He was really creepy, rude and obnoxious,” Cathey said. She said she would try to avoid him by walking the long way around to her apartment if she saw his car in the parking lot. The two were in high school together as well, and Cathey said he acted the same way then.”

One video footage showed Cetin walking through the doors of the Macy’s store without a gun or rifle. This indicates that the gun or rifle was already planted in the store. The question is, “When did he do this and why? In one of the assault cases, a judge told Cetin last December that he was not to possess a gun. Cetin was prohibited from owning guns from his previous arrest and probably stole the gun from his stepfather. However his stepfather urged the judge not to impose a no-contact order, saying his stepson was “going through a hard time.”

There were numerous people; a neighbor, a judge, a stepfather, a mother, a friend who were scared of this young man and instinctively felt he was dangerous. He had been under a mental health evaluation and has had to undergo regular drug tests. That’s the evidence, the tell tale signs, that someone like this is going to snap and do something that will change the lives of others forever in this shooting mall act of terrorism. Something really important was discovered and told to the press and public, through social media accounts belonging to Cetin, he had a fondness for the military and video games.

Video games we’ve all heard of. Cetin once participated in paintball and said he “can’t wait for Halo 5,” the first-person shooter video game. Those video games that simulate a crime scene, the shooter shooting numerous bad guys or good guys. Constantly playing these video games during the most difficult and life changing events during a young man’s teenage life. Add the domestic violence or trouble at home and that adds to this dangerous cocktail of circumstances. Why are we so surprised that these horrific shootings starting from the Columbine shootings keep continually happening? But we are surprised and terribly affected by these senseless shootings. 

And it’s not just the video games but all the action packed and violent box office movies that are so popular with the young minds of our society.

“The names of the dead were not immediately released by police. But The Seattle Times identified one as 16-year-old Sarai Lara. Her mother said she survived cancer as a young girl and was a happy student.”