The Hollywood Road house where police report that suspected Mall in Columbia shooter Darion Marcus Aguilar lived with his mother in College Park.
Howard County Police Department investigators have identified the suspect in Saturday’s Columbia mall shooting as Darion Marcus Aguilar, 19, who lived in College Park on Hollywood Road, according to a police news release.
Saturday morning, Aguilar shot six to nine rounds in the mall’s Zumiez store, killing Brianna Benlolo, 21, and Tyler Johnson, 25, before apparently taking his own life. Another victim also suffered a foot injury from a shot fired to the level below the store, according to the release.
Both Aguilar and Benlolo lived in College Park. Police said there are no known connections between Aguilar and either of the victims, and they have not established a motive in the case.
Johnson, who is from Mt. Airy, worked with Benlolo at Zumiez. Aguilar, Benlolo and Johnson are not listed in the university directory.
Aguilar entered the mall at about 10:15 a.m. and began shooting in the store at 11:15 a.m. He fired a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun that he purchased legally in December. After searching Aguilar’s possessions, officers found “two homemade devices that appeared to be an attempt at making explosives,” according to a news release.
At about 1:40 p.m. Saturday, Prince George’s County police officers responded to a call of a missing person named Darion Aguilar, according to a news release. Investigators at the Hollywood Road house found Aguilar’s journal and became concerned for his safety.
At a news conference last night, Howard County Police Chief William McMahon said investigators are looking over the journal.
Officers tracked Aguilar’s cellphone to the Mall in Columbia and turned the information over to the Howard County Police Department. Shortly after, officials confirmed that Aguilar was the shooter.
The house Aguilar lived in sits a block from Route 1, across the street from the Mazza Grandmarc.
Aguilar went to James H. Blake High School in Silver Spring, McMahon said. Baltimore Sun reports also indicated that he worked at the College Park Dunkin’ Donuts on Route 1.
College Park City Councilman Patrick Wojahn — who represents District 1, where Aguilar lived — said the shooting is “obviously very tragic.”
“[It is] especially scary given the broader circumstances of the incident and what might have happened had this guy carried on everything he intended to,” he said.
The shooting brings some important issues to the forefront, Wojahn said, such as community efforts to increase access to mental health services and prevent domestic violence.
It is important for everyone at the university to report behavior that is harmful, not just for the entire community but also for the individual, University Police Chief David Mitchell said.
Sophomore biology major Anthony Bui went to Blake before coming to this university.
Bui did not know Aguilar well but said that the news has been “shocking” all around. Unlike previous mass shootings, such as those in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., Saturday’s incident is more of a “mental shock.”
“I’ve probably walked by him in the hallways more than multiple times,” he added. “It’s just kind of mind-blowing.”
