A 19-year-old man was charged with assault and weapons crimes after he allegedly shot five people at a Connecticut mall during a dispute, authorities said Wednesday.
Tajuan Washington, who was free on $20,000 bail on unrelated motor vehicle charges, drove to police headquarters while officers were surveilling him and surrendered following Tuesday’s shooting at the Brass Mill Center in Waterbury, city Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said during a news conference.
The injuries were not life-threatening, officials said.
The shooting shortly after 4:30 p.m. sent mall patrons scrambling for safety. Dozens of law enforcement officers responded and searched the mall for hours. Police identified Washington on security video, seeing him leave the mall and drive away, then surveilled his home, Spagnolo said.
Washington was ordered detained on $2 million bond as he was arraigned in court Wednesday on charges including first-degree assault, criminal use of a weapon, illegal discharge of a firearm and risk of injury to children.
His lawyer, public defender Justin Chan, said he believed Washington was defending himself and added Washington had been traumatized by losing a relative to gun violence. Chan also said there were no convictions on Washington’s record.
Lawrence Adler, a lawyer for Washington on the motor vehicle charges that include interfering with police, said Washington denies those allegations and called the case insignificant. He said he did not know much about the mall shooting.
“There’s nothing about his past to lead anyone to say this kid’s on a path to hurting people,” Adler said.
Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski Jr. said three people have been discharged from the hospital and two were still being treated. The person most seriously injured, a woman who was shot in the spine, had regained some feeling in her extremities, and officials were hoping she isn’t permanently paralyzed, he said.
Washington and a man who was with four young women got into a dispute, and Washington pulled a pistol, Pernerewski said.
“It was in effect two young men who knew each other, had a history and a past,” the mayor said.
The city was shaken but not broken, Pernerewski said.
“This is a strong city, and we are very much standing together in times of crisis,” he said. “We support and we care for one another.”
Spagnolo did not release details of the dispute, saying it was not entirely clear but police had some idea what it was about.
Spagnolo said evidence indicated the shooter used a .40-caliber handgun, which had not been found. Police with a search warrant seized two rifles and found ammunition at Washington’s home that matched ammunition at the mall, Spagnolo said.
Police surveilling Washington’s home followed him as he drove to police headquarters to report he had been involved in the dispute, Spagnolo said.
It was shocking that a dispute that might have just been a fistfight became a shooting instead, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said at the news conference.
“Someone pulls out a semiautomatic and shoots seven rounds and badly wounds five people like that — just like that,” Lamont said.
Police and witnesses described the chaos of people crying and running, others locking themselves inside areas of the mall, and swarms of police searching for the shooter.
Jayvon Turner told WFSB-TV that one of the victims was bleeding heavily. “It was crazy, and I tried to tell everybody to get out of there,” he said.
Court records show Washington was accepted into a probation program earlier this year for another set of charges, which have been sealed from public view under the state law for that program, which is generally for first-time offenders.
In October, local media reported that Washington was arrested by state police on allegations of driving more than 100 mph (160 kph) on Interstate 84 in Southington. State police said Washington sped away from a trooper who tried to pull him over, and the trooper ended the pursuit for safety reasons. He was later arrested when police traced the speeding car’s registration to his home, troopers said.
The Brass Mill Center is off Interstate 84 in Waterbury, about 30 miles (about 50 kilometers) southwest of Hartford, the state capital. Spagnolo said police have used the mall for active shooter drills in the past, and that practice helped officers during the response.
