Police: Rifle Purchased Through Classified Ad

Share

By By KOMO Staff & News Services

Summary

As a convicted felon, Dominic Maldonado was barred from possessing firearms, but his attorney says getting the guns was easy.

Story Published: Nov 23, 2005 at 3:43 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 2:08 AM PDT

Police: Rifle Purchased Through Classified Ad
TACOMA - The man accused of shooting six people in the Tacoma Mall purchased an assault rifle through a classified ad, and the seller is cooperating with investigators, police said Wednesday.

Federal agents traced the weapon, a Chinese version of the AK-47, to an advertisement in a free weekly circular, Tacoma police said.

Detectives and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were still working to trace the second weapon used in the shooting, a semiautomatic machine pistol.

The defendant in the shootings, Dominick Sergio Maldonado, 20, is being held on $2 million bail in Pierce County. He pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of assault, kidnapping and firearms possession.

A police statement said the assault rifle's sale "was within confines of the law." Maldonado, who had felony convictions as a juvenile, was barred from possessing firearms.

"For now it's just one more thing we've accomplished. There's still a lot more investigation to go," police spokesman Mark Fulghum told The Associated Press. The seller was not identified.

Maldonado's court-appointed lawyer, Sverre Staurset, said that Maldonado purchased the Tec-9 machine pistol on the street.

Newly released police documents said Maldonado left messages that he would "be heard" around his home before the shootings and police said they found several ammunition boxes in his room.

In search warrant documents released Wednesday, Tacoma police said they found the messages "Today is the day I will be heard" and "I will be heard" on a markerboard and yellow note in Maldonado's home. He lived in a rented house in Tacoma with three roommates. Detectives also found the attention deficit drug methylphenidate - sometimes sold under the brand name Ritalin - along with marijuana paraphernalia and a box of knives in the room.

Authorities have previously said they found bomb plans and instructions for making the poison ricin in Maldonado's room.

Just twelve hours before Maldonado allegedly opened fire inside the mall, he called a good friend.

Corrie Herbrand said Maldonado wanted to hang out and talk. She was busy and declined.

"I just wish I would have come out with him and maybe he would have opened up and said, 'Hey I've been thinking about doing some stuff' and maybe I could have talked him out of it," she said.

The next day, Corrie received a text message from Maldonado warning that the world would feel his anger and pain.

That night, she watched news of the mall shooting and held her breath.

"I saw him on there and I was hoping, like 'Please don't let it be Dom,' it was him," Herbrand said.

Prosecutors have alleged Maldonado began his assault at about noon Sunday, marching down a mall corridor while firing the assault rifle and machine pistol. Six people were wounded, one critically.

Authorities said Maldonado later took hostages in a music store. The assault ended after about four hours when two of the hostages helped disarm the gunman and walk him out to meet police. None of the hostages was hurt.

His attorney said Maldonado claims he was humiliated by two police officers and the son of one of them at a law enforcement youth camp.

"No behavior like that on the part of staffers would be tolerated," said Pierce County Sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer.

Troyer was a counselor at that camp. It was 1997, and Maldonado was 12 years old. Troyer said that Maldonado was troubled, homesick, and threatening to run away.

Maldonado was taken home on the second day and was never mistreated, Troyer said. "Obviously the kid had some issues before he got there, and for him or anybody to blame a camp is a disgrace."

Detectives who searched Maldonado's room the day of the shootings found several boxes for ammunition to match those weapons, documents released Wednesday said. It was unclear if the boxes were full.

The man most seriously wounded in the shooting, Brendan McKown, 38, of Tacoma, remained hospitalized in critical condition on Wednesday. Doctors said he may suffer permanent paralysis.