A suspect was in custody Tuesday hours after a “random” shooting in Yakima, Washington, killed three people, authorities said.
The triple homicide happened around 3:30 a.m. at a Circle K market, Yakima Police Chief Matt Murray said.
“There was no apparent conflict between the parties,” he said. “The man just walked in and started shooting.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the chief announced that a suspect was no longer a threat and was discovered behind the warehouses after a 911 call.
The person’s condition was not released.
Police previously identified the suspect as Jarid Haddock, 21, of Yakima County.
Murray said the suspect, who did not wear a disguise, first tried to enter a convenience store where the doors were locked and then entered Circle K where two customers were and began shooting. The suspect also shot someone outside the convenience store, Murray said.
The gunman then crossed the street to return to the first gas station and opened fire on a vehicle that police initially thought he was stealing but now believe is the suspect’s vehicle. There was one person in the vehicle.
Murray did not know if that person was hit by gunfire.
Police later said there may not have been a fourth victim of the shooting. They attributed the discrepancy to a “rapidly evolving situation.”
The suspect was last seen driving a gray or silver Chrysler 200 eastbound on State Route 24 toward Moxee, Murray said.
“This is a dangerous person. And it’s random, so there’s a danger to the community,” Murray said. “We don’t have a reason. We do not know why.
Investigators were watching security video to determine what happened.
“We have security videos in the store and we are collecting other videos,” the chief said. “There were also eyewitnesses who gave us information.”
The country has been hit by a wave of armed violence. On Saturday night, a gunman fatally shot 11 people and injured at least nine more in Monterey Park, California.
Ten hours later, at least 12 people were injured after gunshots erupted at a Louisiana nightclub, authorities said, calling it a “targeted attack.”
Two students were fatally shot Monday afternoon at a charter school in Des Moines, Iowa.
In Northern California on Monday, at least seven people were killed and one person seriously injured in a shooting in Half Moon Bay, a coastal city of about 11,000 about 30 miles south of San Francisco.
And one person was killed and seven others injured in a shooting Monday night in Oakland, California.
The United States has had at least 39 mass shootings in the first 24 days of 2023, according to the gun violence filea nonprofit organization that defines a mass shooting as a single incident in which at least four people, other than the shooter, are shot.
denis romero contributed.
