Reply #2: Some details from local media, via the High Road

[benEzra]

Snipped from an ongoing discussion at the High Road, from media local to the incident:

The mall was a posted "no guns allowed" zone (Washington state has CCW, but businesses are allowed to discourage CCW.)

The local news is reporting that the gun the shooter used was a rare Bofors AK-5, which if true would be an illegal full-auto (Title 2/Class III restricted under the NFA). I'm a bit skeptical; given general media ignorance about guns, it could have been a non-automatic civilian rifle instead, anything from an SKS to a Vepr to a Mini Thirty.

Some excerpts from the thread:

my girlfriend is a manager at Macy's at the Tacoma Mall. thankfully, she has today off. the phone's been ringing all day long with people asking if she's ok. i'm SO happy to say yes. makes me nervous as hell that she has to go to work there everyday. and of course, Macy's and the Mall, managed by Simon Properties has a no weapons policy.

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According to a TPD spokesman, the media are actually obstructing things by calling the store, preventing the TPD negotiators from getting through.

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According to a KOMO-TV report, the weapon is now being described as a Bofors AK-5 rifle. Apparently one of the hostages in the music store knew what kind of rifle it was.

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Ok - I am not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but: White guy, well dressed using not just a full-auto piece, but one which is rare in the US, and just somehow there was someone on-site to identify it and no one was killed?

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The local media is now reporting that the shooter is a 20 year old Tacoma resident with an extensive juvenile record. Police are currently searching his home just a few blocks from the mall.

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Channel 4 did just report on the 11:00 news that the gun is an AK-5, but I still don't know if I am buying that.....
The legal gun carrying citizen who apparently helped some folks escape early on is not even being mentioned of course
......tom