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Alleged Tacoma Shooter Sent Text Warnings
TACOMA, Washington (CNN) -- A man accused of taking hostages and shooting six people at a shopping mall Sunday sent a cell-phone text message warning about his rampage to his ex-girlfriend, she said Monday.
The woman, Tiffany Robison, said shooting suspect Dominick Maldonado sent the message Sunday morning, six months after they broke up.
"He sent me one text message saying that the world is going to feel his anger, feel his pain, that today is the day he's going to be heard," she told CNN's "American Morning."
Police said a man with a semiautomatic rifle opened fire on people inside the Tacoma Mall on Sunday afternoon and then barricaded himself in a music store, taking three employees hostage.
Maldonado, 20, is being held at the Pierce County Jail, according to its Web site, on six counts of felony assault and three counts of felony kidnapping.
Five of the six shooting victims had minor injuries, said Jon Lendosky, Tacoma's deputy fire chief. Todd Kelley, a spokesman for Tacoma General Hospital, said one person arrived in critical condition.
In addition to the text messages, Robison said Maldonado called her from the mall's Sam Goody music store while he was holding hostages.
"He's like, 'I'm crazy, I'm crazy ... I gotta let you go, I'm on the other line with the police,' and that was the end of that," she said.
Robison said Maldonado also apologized for being rude to her recently and said he really cared about her.
Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said the suspect was taken into custody after negotiations and the hostages were unharmed.
Robison said that Maldonado had had some problems in his life and that about a year ago, he began to talk about "doing something stupid."
She said when she learned what happened, she initially was shocked and upset.
"I just think that he had something going on," she said, "and it all built up and finally he did what he did."
Bret Strickler, who said he was Maldonado's best friend, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer he received a similar text message while Maldonado was holding the hostages, The Associated Press reported.
Inside the mall Sunday, Stacy Wilson, 29, heard a popping noise and turned around, the AP reported. "I saw the gunman randomly shooting. I ran with a group of women to Victoria's Secret," Wilson told the AP. She told the AP they crouched behind a wall in the store, and when the shooting stopped, an employee ran out and closed a security gate at the front.
Wilson said she heard 15 to 20 shots, according to the AP.
"He was walking backward and shooting. I couldn't see his face," she told the AP. "Everyone was running and screaming."
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