Gunman in mall shooting had no criminal record

Howard County police chief William McMahon speaks to reporters at the parking lot of the Mall in Columbia, Md., after a shooting at the mall on Saturday Jan. 25, 2014 in Howard County, Md. Police in Maryland say three people died Saturday in a shooting at a mall in suburban Baltimore, including the presumed gunman. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Howard County police chief William McMahon speaks to reporters at the parking lot of the Mall in Columbia, Md., after a shooting at the mall on Saturday Jan. 25, 2014 in Howard County, Md. Police in Maryland say three people died Saturday in a shooting at a mall in suburban Baltimore, including the presumed gunman. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The home of Darion Marcus Aguilar of College Park, Md., is seen Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. Police say Aguilar carried out Saturday’s attack with a shotgun at a skateboard shop at the Mall of Columbia before killing himself. Howard County Police Chief William McMahon said investigators are trying to determine whether Aguilar knew either of the victims and whether he had a criminal record. They offered no motive for the shooting. (AP Photo/Ben Nuckles)

The home of Darion Marcus Aguilar of College Park, Md., is seen Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. Police say Aguilar carried out Saturday’s attack with a shotgun at a skateboard shop at the Mall of Columbia before killing himself.Howard County Police Chief William McMahon said investigators are trying to determine whether Aguilar knew either of the victims and whether he had a criminal record. They offered no motive for the shooting. (AP Photo/Ben Nuckles)

A Montgomery County, Md., police officer walks in a parking lot at The Mall in Columbia, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014, in Columbia, Md., following a shooting that police say three people died at the mall including the presumed gunman. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Restaurant general manager Heather Saffield, watches though the glass door from her restaurant at The Mall in Columbia Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014, in Columbia, Md., as police continue the evacuation of the remaining mall visitors following a shooting that police say three people died including the presumed gunman. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Buy AP Photo Reprints

COLUMBIA, Md. (AP) — The gunman who shot two people to death at a Maryland shopping mall had no criminal record, police said Sunday, but little else was known about the 19-year-old and whether he knew his victims.

Darion Marcus Aguilar of College Park, Md., carried out Saturday’s attack with a 12-gauge shotgun at a skateboard shop at the Mall in Columbia in suburban Baltimore before killing himself, police said.

Howard County Police Chief William McMahon said investigators are trying to determine whether Aguilar knew either of the victims, who were both employees of a shop called Zumiez, which sells skateboards, clothing and accessories.

Police identified the victims as 21-year-old Brianna Benlolo of College Park, Md., and 25-year-old Tyler Johnson of Mount Airy, Md. McMahon offered no motive for the shooting.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions,” McMahon said at a news conference. Aguilar purchased the shotgun legally last month at a store in neighboring Montgomery County.

It took hours to identify the gunman since he was carrying ammunition and a backpack containing homemade explosives, McMahon said. Officers searched Aguilar’s home Saturday night, recovering more ammunition, computers and documents, police said.

The home is a two-story wood-frame house in a middle-income neighborhood called Hollywood, just off U.S. Route 1 and near the Capital Beltway. No one answered the door Sunday morning at the house, which had a Christmas wreath on the front door, signs that read “Beware of Dog” and warnings about an alarm system.

Aguilar and his mother were renters at the home. Sirkka Singleton, who owns the property with her husband and lives a block away, said they use a property manager to find tenants and they have never met the Aguilars. She declined to say who the property manager was.

Residents described the neighborhood as a mix of owners and renters, including some University of Maryland students.

Katie Lawson, director of communications at the university, said campus police told her that Aguilar has never had been a student there. She said she had no information on the two victims.

Aguilar graduated in 2013 from James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, said Dana Tofig, a Montgomery County schools spokesman.

A person who attended the high school with Aguilar told The Associated Press that he was an avid skateboarder.

Tydryn Scott, 19, said she was Aguilar’s lab partner in science class and described him as tall, skinny and quiet. She said he was interested in skateboarding and hung out with other skaters.

She said she was stung by the news that he was the shooter.

“It was really hurtful, like, wow — someone that I know, someone that I’ve been in the presence of more than short amounts of time. I’ve seen this guy in action before. Never upset, never sad, just quiet, just chill,” Scott said. “If any other emotion, he was happy, laughing.”

A man who answered the phone at Johnson’s residence in Mount Airy, northwest of Baltimore, said the family had no comment. But the victim’s aunt told a local television station that she did not believe her nephew knew Aguilar.

Sydney Petty, in a statement to WBAL-TV, also said she did not believe her nephew had a relationship with Benlolo outside work.

“Tyler didn’t have anything beyond a working relationship with this girl, and he would have mentioned it if he did, and we’re just as confused as anybody,” Petty said.

She said her nephew also worked at a drug rehabilitation center in Mount Airy, for which she served on the board.

Five other people were hurt in the attack and its aftermath, but only one was hit by gunfire. All were released from hospitals by Saturday evening, police said.

At the time of the shooting, the mall was busy with weekend shoppers and employees.

“There were a lot of people very close to where this happened,” Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said.

Police searched the mall with dogs overnight, and stores were to remain closed through Tuesday.

Benlolo’s grandfather, John Feins, said in a telephone interview from Florida that his granddaughter had a 2-year-old son and that the job at Zumiez was her first since she went back to work after her son’s birth.

“She was all excited because she was the manager there,” he said.

He described his daughter’s family as a military family that had moved frequently and had been in Colorado before moving to Maryland about two years ago. He said his granddaughter was on good terms with her son’s father, and they shared custody.

“I mean what can you say?” he said. “You go to work and make a dollar and you got some idiot coming in and blowing people away.”

___

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko and Martin Di Caro in Washington contributed to this report. Eric Tucker contributed from Columbia, Md., and Kasey Jones reported from Baltimore.

Associated Press

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Top Headlines

Gunman in mall shooting had no criminal record

Gunman in mall shooting had no criminal record

Howard County police chief William McMahon speaks to reporters at the parking lot of the Mall in Columbia, Md., after a shooting at the mall on Saturday Jan. 25, 2014 in Howard County, Md. Police in Maryland say three people died Saturday in a shooting at a mall in suburban Baltimore, including the presumed gunman. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Howard County police chief William McMahon speaks to reporters at the parking lot of the Mall in Columbia, Md., after a shooting at the mall on Saturday Jan. 25, 2014 in Howard County, Md. Police in Maryland say three people died Saturday in a shooting at a mall in suburban Baltimore, including the presumed gunman. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The home of Darion Marcus Aguilar of College Park, Md., is seen Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. Police say Aguilar carried out Saturday’s attack with a shotgun at a skateboard shop at the Mall of Columbia before killing himself. Howard County Police Chief William McMahon said investigators are trying to determine whether Aguilar knew either of the victims and whether he had a criminal record. They offered no motive for the shooting. (AP Photo/Ben Nuckles)

The home of Darion Marcus Aguilar of College Park, Md., is seen Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. Police say Aguilar carried out Saturday’s attack with a shotgun at a skateboard shop at the Mall of Columbia before killing himself.Howard County Police Chief William McMahon said investigators are trying to determine whether Aguilar knew either of the victims and whether he had a criminal record. They offered no motive for the shooting. (AP Photo/Ben Nuckles)

A Montgomery County, Md., police officer walks in a parking lot at The Mall in Columbia, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014, in Columbia, Md., following a shooting that police say three people died at the mall including the presumed gunman. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Restaurant general manager Heather Saffield, watches though the glass door from her restaurant at The Mall in Columbia Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014, in Columbia, Md., as police continue the evacuation of the remaining mall visitors following a shooting that police say three people died including the presumed gunman. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Buy AP Photo Reprints

COLUMBIA, Md. (AP) — The gunman who shot two people to death at a Maryland shopping mall had no criminal record, police said Sunday, but little else was known about the 19-year-old and whether he knew his victims.

Darion Marcus Aguilar of College Park, Md., carried out Saturday’s attack with a 12-gauge shotgun at a skateboard shop at the Mall in Columbia in suburban Baltimore before killing himself, police said.

Howard County Police Chief William McMahon said investigators are trying to determine whether Aguilar knew either of the victims, who were both employees of a shop called Zumiez, which sells skateboards, clothing and accessories.

Police identified the victims as 21-year-old Brianna Benlolo of College Park, Md., and 25-year-old Tyler Johnson of Mount Airy, Md. McMahon offered no motive for the shooting.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions,” McMahon said at a news conference. Aguilar purchased the shotgun legally last month at a store in neighboring Montgomery County.

It took hours to identify the gunman since he was carrying ammunition and a backpack containing homemade explosives, McMahon said. Officers searched Aguilar’s home Saturday night, recovering more ammunition, computers and documents, police said.

The home is a two-story wood-frame house in a middle-income neighborhood called Hollywood, just off U.S. Route 1 and near the Capital Beltway. No one answered the door Sunday morning at the house, which had a Christmas wreath on the front door, signs that read “Beware of Dog” and warnings about an alarm system.

Aguilar and his mother were renters at the home. Sirkka Singleton, who owns the property with her husband and lives a block away, said they use a property manager to find tenants and they have never met the Aguilars. She declined to say who the property manager was.

Residents described the neighborhood as a mix of owners and renters, including some University of Maryland students.

Katie Lawson, director of communications at the university, said campus police told her that Aguilar has never had been a student there. She said she had no information on the two victims.

Aguilar graduated in 2013 from James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, said Dana Tofig, a Montgomery County schools spokesman.

A person who attended the high school with Aguilar told The Associated Press that he was an avid skateboarder.

Tydryn Scott, 19, said she was Aguilar’s lab partner in science class and described him as tall, skinny and quiet. She said he was interested in skateboarding and hung out with other skaters.

She said she was stung by the news that he was the shooter.

“It was really hurtful, like, wow — someone that I know, someone that I’ve been in the presence of more than short amounts of time. I’ve seen this guy in action before. Never upset, never sad, just quiet, just chill,” Scott said. “If any other emotion, he was happy, laughing.”

A man who answered the phone at Johnson’s residence in Mount Airy, northwest of Baltimore, said the family had no comment. But the victim’s aunt told a local television station that she did not believe her nephew knew Aguilar.

Sydney Petty, in a statement to WBAL-TV, also said she did not believe her nephew had a relationship with Benlolo outside work.

“Tyler didn’t have anything beyond a working relationship with this girl, and he would have mentioned it if he did, and we’re just as confused as anybody,” Petty said.

She said her nephew also worked at a drug rehabilitation center in Mount Airy, for which she served on the board.

Five other people were hurt in the attack and its aftermath, but only one was hit by gunfire. All were released from hospitals by Saturday evening, police said.

At the time of the shooting, the mall was busy with weekend shoppers and employees.

“There were a lot of people very close to where this happened,” Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said.

Police searched the mall with dogs overnight, and stores were to remain closed through Tuesday.

Benlolo’s grandfather, John Feins, said in a telephone interview from Florida that his granddaughter had a 2-year-old son and that the job at Zumiez was her first since she went back to work after her son’s birth.

“She was all excited because she was the manager there,” he said.

He described his daughter’s family as a military family that had moved frequently and had been in Colorado before moving to Maryland about two years ago. He said his granddaughter was on good terms with her son’s father, and they shared custody.

“I mean what can you say?” he said. “You go to work and make a dollar and you got some idiot coming in and blowing people away.”

___

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko and Martin Di Caro in Washington contributed to this report. Eric Tucker contributed from Columbia, Md., and Kasey Jones reported from Baltimore.

Associated Press

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Top Headlines

Gunman in mall shooting had no criminal record

Holder proposes changes in criminal justice system

This Oct. 4, 2010 file photo shows Attorney General Eric Holder speaking during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington. Holder is calling for major changes to the nation’s criminal justice system that would scale back the use of harsh prison sentences for certain drug-related crimes, divert people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community service programs and expand a prison program to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

This Oct. 4, 2010 file photo shows Attorney General Eric Holder speaking during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington. Holder is calling for major changes to the nation’s criminal justice system that would scale back the use of harsh prison sentences for certain drug-related crimes, divert people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community service programs and expand a prison program to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Buy AP Photo Reprints

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the U.S. facing massive overcrowding in its prisons, Attorney General Eric Holder is calling for major changes to the nation’s criminal justice system that would scale back the use of harsh sentences for certain drug-related crimes.

In remarks prepared for delivery to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, Holder also favors diverting people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community service programs and expanding a prison program to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders.

“We need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter and rehabilitate — not merely to convict, warehouse and forget,” Holder says in the speech he’s scheduled to deliver Monday.

In one important change, the attorney general is altering Justice Department policy so that low-level, non-violent drug offenders with no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or cartels won’t be charged with offenses that impose mandatory minimum sentences.

Mandatory minimum prison sentences, a product of the government’s war on drugs in the 1980s, limit the discretion of judges to impose shorter prison sentences.

Under the altered policy, the attorney general said defendants will instead be charged with offenses for which accompanying sentences “are better suited to their individual conduct, rather than excessive prison terms more appropriate for violent criminals or drug kingpins.”

Federal prisons are operating at nearly 40 percent above capacity and hold more than 219,000 inmates — with almost half of them serving time for drug-related crimes and many of them with substance use disorders. In addition, 9 million to 10 million prisoners go through local jails each year. Holder praised state and local law enforcement officials for already instituting some of the types of changes Holder says must be made at the federal level.

Aggressive enforcement of federal criminal laws is necessary, but “we cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation,” Holder said. “Today, a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality and incarceration traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities. However, many aspects of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate this problem, rather than alleviate it.”

“We need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter and rehabilitate — not merely to convict, warehouse and forget,” said the attorney general.

Holder said mandatory minimum sentences “breed disrespect for the system. When applied indiscriminately, they do not serve public safety. They have had a disabling effect on communities. And they are ultimately counterproductive.”

Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have introduced legislation aimed at giving federal judges more discretion in applying mandatory minimums to certain drug offenders.

Holder said new approaches — which he is calling the “Smart On Crime” initiative — are the result of a Justice Department review he launched early this year.

The attorney general said some issues are best handled at the state or local level and said he has directed federal prosecutors across the country to develop locally tailored guidelines for determining when federal charges should be filed, and when they should not.

“By targeting the most serious offenses, prosecuting the most dangerous criminals, directing assistance to crime ‘hot spots,’ and pursuing new ways to promote public safety, deterrence, efficiency and fairness — we can become both smarter and tougher on crime,” Holder said.

The attorney general said 17 states have directed money away from prison construction and toward programs and services such as treatment and supervision that are designed to reduce the problem of repeat offenders.

In Kentucky, legislation has reserved prison beds for the most serious offenders and refocused resources on community supervision. The state, Holder said, is projected to reduce its prison population by more than 3,000 over the next 10 years, saving more than $ 400 million.

He also cited investments in drug treatment in Texas for non-violent offenders and changes to parole policies which he said brought about a reduction in the prison population of more than 5,000 inmates last year. He said similar efforts helped Arkansas reduce its prison population by more than 1,400. He also pointed to Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Hawaii as states that have improved public safety while preserving limited resources.

Holder also said the department is expanding a policy for considering compassionate release for inmates facing extraordinary or compelling circumstances, and who pose no threat to the public. He said the expansion will include elderly inmates who did not commit violent crimes and who have served significant portions of their sentences.

Associated Press

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Top Headlines

Holder proposes changes in criminal justice system