On a Friday evening, September 23, 2016, a tragedy unfolded at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, forever changing the lives of many. Among the innocent victims was Sarai Lara, a 16-year-old female who had gone to the mall with her family. A sophomore at Mount Vernon High School, Sarai was a survivor, having previously battled and overcome cancer. That night, while her family was in another part of the mall, she went into the Macy's department store to shop for pants.
Shortly before 7:00 p.m., a gunman, later identified as 20-year-old Arcan Cetin, entered the Macy's store armed with a rifle. He began shooting randomly, and Sarai became one of his first victims near a clothing rack. The attack was swift and brutal, lasting only about a minute, but in that short time, four other people lost their lives. After the rampage, the shooter left his weapon on a cosmetics counter and fled the scene.
A manhunt ensued, and authorities released surveillance images of the suspect to the public. The following day, Arcan Cetin, an immigrant from Turkey and a resident of Oak Harbor, Washington, was arrested without incident as he walked down the street in his hometown. After his arrest, Cetin confessed to committing the five murders at the mall. He was charged with five counts of aggravated murder. The motive for his actions remained unclear, though he told authorities he was interested in ISIS and a witness claimed he called out a female's name during the shooting.
The legal proceedings against Cetin would never reach a conclusion. While being held in the Snohomish County Jail and awaiting a mental health evaluation to determine his fitness to stand trial, the case took another grim turn. On the evening of April 16, 2017, nearly seven months after the massacre, Arcan Cetin was found hanging in his jail cell. He had taken his own life, leaving the victims' families without the chance to see him face justice in a trial.
