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| Isaac Zamora © AP |
The police in Washington State on Wednesday were cobbling together details of a shooting rampage on Tuesday in which an emotionally disturbed man killed a sheriff’s deputy and five other people and wounded four more along an 18-mile swath of woodland before surrendering.
The authorities said the gunman was Isaac L. Zamora, 28, a resident of the tiny town of Alger. Mr. Zamora had been released from jail on Aug. 6 after serving a six-month sentence for cocaine possession and was still under supervision by a corrections officer at the time of the shootings.
Although the police were still trying to unearth a motive for the killings, a close friend of Mr. Zamora’s, Eric Wolf, said Mr. Zamora had a history of drug problems and depression and had grown increasingly despondent after a bitter breakup with a girlfriend two years ago.
But Mr. Wolf said: “It’s hard to believe he would do something like this. I didn’t think he was capable.”
Mr. Zamora’s mother, Dennise, tearfully told the local news media that the very officer that the authorities say he killed, Anne Jackson, a deputy with the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office, had in the past tried to help her son deal with his psychiatric problems.
Although the chronology of events remains murky, the police said the killing spree began sometime Tuesday afternoon.
Deputies responding to reports of gunfire found the body of an unidentified man and Deputy Jackson, 40, who was answering a trespassing call at a residence in Alger when she was shot and killed.
After searching the Alger area, about 75 miles north of Seattle, more victims were discovered at two homes: a 48-year-old woman and two male construction workers.
At some point during the ensuing chaos in the Alger area, a 56-year-old man was also shot and a 61-year-old man was stabbed. Neither injury was said to be life threatening.
From Alger, Mr. Zamora led the police on a wild chase on a southbound stretch of freeway. According to Trooper Keith Leary, a spokesman for the Washington State Patrol, Mr. Zamora shot and killed a passing driver during the chase. The driver was identified Wednesday as Leroy Lange, 64.
Mr. Zamora also wounded a pursuing state trooper, Troy Giddings, 42, and a motorcyclist at a Shell gas station, the police said. Both were treated at hospitals for gunshot wounds and released, Mr. Leary said.
About two hours after the rampage started, Mr. Zamora led the police into the parking lot of the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office and surrendered. He was booked at the Snohomish County Jail on six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and held in $6 million bail.
Mr. Zamora’s friend, Mr. Wolf, described him as quiet and keeping to himself, somebody, “whom everybody had written off.” Mr. Zamora and an older brother had been home-schooled, Mr. Wolf said.
After suffering an injury working as a house painter and breaking up with his girlfriend, Mr. Zamora drifted into depression, becoming addicted to painkillers, Mr. Wolf said.
Eventually, Mr. Zamora moved into a trailer on his parents’ property in Alger, a town of about a 100 people. Mr. Wolf said he had last spoken with his friend about a week and a half ago.
“It sounded like he was in better spirits, like his head was clearer,” said Mr. Wolf, for whom Mr. Zamora served as best man. “It’s hard to believe what could have pushed him this far.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, Ms. Jackson and Mr. Lange were the only victims identified by the authorities, and the police could not say whether there was a connection between Mr. Zamora and any of those killed or wounded.
According to Chad Lewis, a spokesman with the Washington Department of Corrections, Mr. Zamora has a lengthy criminal history, mostly for drug charges. Upon his release from jail last month, he had twice reported to his corrections supervisor as instructed and passed a urinalysis test, Mr. Lewis said.
As part of his sentence, Mr. Zamora was required to undergo a mental health evaluation upon his release, Mr. Lewis said. But Mr. Zamora was not able to afford the evaluation, and his corrections supervisors were working to help him receive financial assistance, he said.
“So far we have not found any red flags that went unnoticed,” Mr. Lewis said.
Late Tuesday night, Gov. Christine Gregoire called for an independent review of Mr. Zamora’s criminal history and supervision. The local police, meanwhile, continued to comb seven crime scenes for clues and mourned the death of one of their own.
“What is important for all of us to understand, this is not a typical day anywhere,” said Sgt. Robert Goetz of the Everett Police Department, one of the investigating agencies on the case. “Not a typical day for law enforcement, not for neighbors, not for us in the Northwest.”