Shooting victim at mall drew gun, family says
The man who was critically wounded during Sunday's shooting rampage at Tacoma Mall drew a pistol and confronted the gunman before he was cut down by gunfire, his family said Tuesday.
Brendan "Dan" McKown was delivering a bank deposit for a mall gift store when gunshots scattered shoppers at around noon. McKown was among six people hit.
Police say Dominick Sergio Maldonado, 20, of Tacoma, marched through the mall shooting randomly at shoppers before taking four hostages in a Sam Goody music store. He surrendered about four hours later.
Witnesses told McKown's family that he was shot after he pulled his own handgun during the shooting.
"Our understanding is that Dan drew his weapon and confronted the gunman," his stepmother, Beverly McKown, said during a news conference Tuesday at Tacoma General Hospital.
McKown, 38, was shot twice in the abdomen and may have suffered permanent paralysis due to spinal damage, said hospital spokesman Todd Kelley. McKown was being brought out of a medically induced coma Tuesday. The other shooting victims were treated at hospitals and released.
Tacoma police confirmed that McKown had a gun, but spokesman Mark Fulghum said there was no evidence that gunshots were fired by anyone other than Maldonado, who faces numerous criminal charges. Police also could not confirm whether there was a confrontation between the two men before McKown was shot.
Maldonado is being held in the Pierce County Jail on $2 million bail.
McKown's father, Roger McKown, said his son has a permit to carry a handgun, which he did not out of fear but because "he always believed in protecting people."
"I'm proud of my son," Roger McKown said. "I think he's a hero."
McKown, a Tacoma resident who is an assistant manager at Excalibur Cutlery and Gifts at Tacoma Mall, was on his way to make a bank deposit when he was shot, his father and stepmother said.
The McKowns, of Yelm, Thurston County, described their bachelor son as a look-alike of late-night TV host Conan O'Brien, with a great sense of humor, a passion for photography and a deep Christian faith.
They said that while they are worried he may be paralyzed for life, they are certain McKown's faith will sustain him.
The Dan McKown Medical Fund, set up to help offset McKown's expenses, has been established through the Bank of America. Donations may be made at any Bank of America branch, the family said.
The McKowns, who are active in prison ministries in part because Roger McKown spent some time behind bars years ago for his own "bad choices," said they have been praying nonstop for their son and for Maldonado.
"We are not angry," said Beverly McKown. "We are praying for Dan and we are praying for this boy. God is a healer."
Police on Tuesday were still trying to determine how Maldonado, a convicted felon, had obtained the two weapons he allegedly carried into the mall. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was helping Tacoma detectives trace the history of the weapons, Fulghum said.
Meanwhile, authorities responded to reports that Maldonado's actions may have been related, in part, to harassment he claimed he received at the hands of police during a youth summer camp several years ago.
While he was holding hostages in the music store, Maldonado demanded a personal apology from three police officers he said had humiliated him as a child, Tacoma police said. Joe Hudson, one of the four hostages, said Maldonado claimed he had been humiliated at the summer camp and treated "like a prisoner."
One officer named by Maldonado was asked to come to the scene of Sunday's shooting spree and did arrive at the mall but never spoke to the Tacoma man, said Pierce County deputy prosecutor Phil Sorensen.
Maldonado wanted an apology for being made to sing at a summer youth camp run by law-enforcement volunteers, Sorensen said. "Apparently, one thing you do [at camp] is sing a song and, apparently, that didn't go over too well," he said. "That was his recitation of what the issue was."
According to charging papers filed by Sorensen, Maldonado claimed "he had suffered humiliation and difficulties during his childhood and that recent emotional events and a desire to want to be 'heard' led ... to the shooting." It was unclear what other events in Maldonado's life may have led up to the shooting.
Tiffany Robison, who dated Maldonado for about six months, said Maldonado told her the same story.
"It upset him a lot, but I don't know why it did," she said of the summer-camp incident. "There's nothing else to it — the whole situation just really upset him," she said.
For more than 10 years, Pierce County sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer was a counselor at the weeklong Law Enforcement Youth Camp, held every year since the 1980s at the Sunset Lake Camp in eastern Pierce County.
Officers each brought three or four youngsters, usually runaways or kids from disadvantaged homes who otherwise wouldn't get a chance to go to summer camp, he said.
Maldonado was 12 when he attended the camp in 1997 and became the first kid in the camp's history to be sent home early, Troyer said. "He cried and cried from the moment he arrived. He refused to participate, and he wanted to go home," he said. On the second day of camp, Troyer said, Maldonado tried to run away.
"He was so disruptive and he was scaring the other kids, so we had to bring him home," Troyer said.
As for being made to sing, Troyer said everybody — including police officers — had to sing at camp, but never by themselves. In fact, the cook wouldn't let anyone into the dining hall unless they sang for their meals, he said.
Sorensen said "it's kind of a stretch" to think something that happened to Maldonado in the fifth grade could have precipitated Sunday's violence.
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The man who was critically wounded during Sunday's shooting rampage at Tacoma Mall drew a pistol and confronted the gunman before he was cut down by gunfire, his family said Tuesday.
Brendan "Dan" McKown was delivering a bank deposit for a mall gift store when gunshots scattered shoppers at around noon. McKown was among six people hit.
Police say Dominick Sergio Maldonado, 20, of Tacoma, marched through the mall shooting randomly at shoppers before taking four hostages in a Sam Goody music store. He surrendered about four hours later.
Witnesses told McKown's family that he was shot after he pulled his own handgun during the shooting.
"Our understanding is that Dan drew his weapon and confronted the gunman," his stepmother, Beverly McKown, said during a news conference Tuesday at Tacoma General Hospital.
McKown, 38, was shot twice in the abdomen and may have suffered permanent paralysis due to spinal damage, said hospital spokesman Todd Kelley. McKown was being brought out of a medically induced coma Tuesday. The other shooting victims were treated at hospitals and released.
Tacoma police confirmed that McKown had a gun, but spokesman Mark Fulghum said there was no evidence that gunshots were fired by anyone other than Maldonado, who faces numerous criminal charges. Police also could not confirm whether there was a confrontation between the two men before McKown was shot.
Maldonado is being held in the Pierce County Jail on $2 million bail.
McKown's father, Roger McKown, said his son has a permit to carry a handgun, which he did not out of fear but because "he always believed in protecting people."
"I'm proud of my son," Roger McKown said. "I think he's a hero."
McKown, a Tacoma resident who is an assistant manager at Excalibur Cutlery and Gifts at Tacoma Mall, was on his way to make a bank deposit when he was shot, his father and stepmother said.
The McKowns, of Yelm, Thurston County, described their bachelor son as a look-alike of late-night TV host Conan O'Brien, with a great sense of humor, a passion for photography and a deep Christian faith.
They said that while they are worried he may be paralyzed for life, they are certain McKown's faith will sustain him.
The Dan McKown Medical Fund, set up to help offset McKown's expenses, has been established through the Bank of America. Donations may be made at any Bank of America branch, the family said.
The McKowns, who are active in prison ministries in part because Roger McKown spent some time behind bars years ago for his own "bad choices," said they have been praying nonstop for their son and for Maldonado.
"We are not angry," said Beverly McKown. "We are praying for Dan and we are praying for this boy. God is a healer."
Police on Tuesday were still trying to determine how Maldonado, a convicted felon, had obtained the two weapons he allegedly carried into the mall. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was helping Tacoma detectives trace the history of the weapons, Fulghum said.
Meanwhile, authorities responded to reports that Maldonado's actions may have been related, in part, to harassment he claimed he received at the hands of police during a youth summer camp several years ago.
While he was holding hostages in the music store, Maldonado demanded a personal apology from three police officers he said had humiliated him as a child, Tacoma police said. Joe Hudson, one of the four hostages, said Maldonado claimed he had been humiliated at the summer camp and treated "like a prisoner."
One officer named by Maldonado was asked to come to the scene of Sunday's shooting spree and did arrive at the mall but never spoke to the Tacoma man, said Pierce County deputy prosecutor Phil Sorensen.
Maldonado wanted an apology for being made to sing at a summer youth camp run by law-enforcement volunteers, Sorensen said. "Apparently, one thing you do [at camp] is sing a song and, apparently, that didn't go over too well," he said. "That was his recitation of what the issue was."
According to charging papers filed by Sorensen, Maldonado claimed "he had suffered humiliation and difficulties during his childhood and that recent emotional events and a desire to want to be 'heard' led ... to the shooting." It was unclear what other events in Maldonado's life may have led up to the shooting.
Tiffany Robison, who dated Maldonado for about six months, said Maldonado told her the same story.
"It upset him a lot, but I don't know why it did," she said of the summer-camp incident. "There's nothing else to it — the whole situation just really upset him," she said.
For more than 10 years, Pierce County sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer was a counselor at the weeklong Law Enforcement Youth Camp, held every year since the 1980s at the Sunset Lake Camp in eastern Pierce County.
Officers each brought three or four youngsters, usually runaways or kids from disadvantaged homes who otherwise wouldn't get a chance to go to summer camp, he said.
Maldonado was 12 when he attended the camp in 1997 and became the first kid in the camp's history to be sent home early, Troyer said. "He cried and cried from the moment he arrived. He refused to participate, and he wanted to go home," he said. On the second day of camp, Troyer said, Maldonado tried to run away.
"He was so disruptive and he was scaring the other kids, so we had to bring him home," Troyer said.
As for being made to sing, Troyer said everybody — including police officers — had to sing at camp, but never by themselves. In fact, the cook wouldn't let anyone into the dining hall unless they sang for their meals, he said.
Sorensen said "it's kind of a stretch" to think something that happened to Maldonado in the fifth grade could have precipitated Sunday's violence.
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