Nation/World

A 16-year-old cancer survivor was among the mall shooting victims in Washington state

SEATTLE — Police say it took about one minute for a gunman to stalk department-store aisles at a Skagit County mall and kill five people, snuffing out the lives of a high-school student, devoted husband, makeup artist, and a tough but caring public servant and her "Southern belle" mother.

Police have accused Arcan Cetin, a troubled 20-year-old, of opening fire at the Macy's store in the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, but a motive remains unknown.

On Tuesday, the Skagit County Coroner's Office officially released the names of the four victims who died at the mall. All four died of multiple gunshot wounds, the coroner said.

The fifth victim died at a Seattle hospital.

Sarai Lara, 16, a sophomore at Mount Vernon High School, was the first — and youngest — victim of the shooting. Prosecutors say she was looking at clothing on a rack in the Macy's department store when she was killed.

Lara had gone to the mall Friday night with her mother, Evangelina Lara. The pair had split up just before the shooting.

"It's not fair what happened to her," Evangelina said of her daughter, speaking through a translator Saturday evening in the family's home, where at least a dozen friends and family members had gathered.

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Born in Mount Vernon, Sarai Lara was remembered as bright, quick to smile and her mother's "right hand" at home with the family, Evangelina said. Sarai balanced a wide net of friends at school with helping at home, especially with her 5-year-old sister. She was proud of her Mexican heritage, her mother said.

Sarai Lara was diagnosed with cancer when she was 8 years old, but she survived it. Just this month, the teen went to a doctor for an evaluation, worried the cancer might be back, but the assessment showed she was healthy, her family and friends said.

In her free time, she enjoyed going out with friends, texting and shopping, Evangelina said. Family and friends remember her as "the perfect child."

"She was too young to get murdered like that," her 19-year-old brother, Salvador Lara, told The Seattle Times.

On Monday, classmates at Mount Vernon High set up a makeshift memorial with flowers and stuffed animals, and held a moment of silence. Many wore pink and purple in her honor.

"Her teachers would describe her as incredibly kind," Principal Rod Merrell told the Skagit Valley Herald.

"We had two classes together and we had lunch also together," Selena Orozco told KIRO-TV during a vigil in Sedro-Woolley on Saturday night. "I mean, we took our last pictures together also."

Shayla Martin, 52, had just celebrated 25 years of working for Macy's, where the Mount Vernon resident was a makeup artist.

Martin's daughter, Tanya Young, said her mother grew up in Mount Vernon, was a Seahawks fan and loved to cook, read and go to the beach.

"She was an amazing woman — compassionate and kind," said Young, 25. "She had grace and class and intelligence."

After the shooting, Young said she went to the community church where families were reuniting with people who had been evacuated from the mall.

She was getting conflicting reports about whether her mom was a victim, but she began realizing the situation because her mother hadn't called to check in.

"I know that she would have called me first," Young said.

"She was so sweet," Martin's sister Karen Van Horn told The Herald of Everett. "She was just very independent. She wanted to make her own way. She didn't want to rely on anyone else."

Co-worker Blanca Mendoza had seen Martin on Friday night when she went to help her in the cosmetics department. "She thanked me for always coming when they call for help," said Mendoza, 23.

She described Martin as a sweet co-worker who would always say hello, strike up a conversation and joke that Mendoza should come work with her in cosmetics.

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Chuck Eagan, 61, and his wife, Pam, had gone out for dinner Friday night and made what was supposed to be a brief stop at the mall before heading home to Lake Stevens. Moments after they walked into the cosmetics department in Macy's they were met by the sound of gunfire, according to Carol Thrush, Eagan's aunt.

Thrush said Eagan and his wife began running to get away, but his wife fell. As Eagan helped her, he was shot, Thrush said.

Eagan, a longtime Boeing maintenance worker, was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he died Saturday morning.

His family told KOMO-TV he had been shot three times, including once in the head.

Eagan was officially identified Monday by the King County Medical Examiner's Office because he died in Seattle. Like the other victims, his cause of death was listed as multiple gunshot wounds.

Eagan worked in Boeing's commercial-airplanes division in Everett and planned on retiring next year.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague," the company said in a statement. "Chuck Eagan was a valued team member who worked in Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Everett. Our heartfelt condolences go out to everyone affected by this tragedy. Boeing is ready to provide counselors to help co-workers cope with this tragic news. We also will reach out to family members to express our sympathy."

Thrush said Eagan hoped to travel after he retired.

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"He was just a wonderful person," Thrush said.

Belinda Galde and her mother, Beatrice Dotson, 95, had gone to the Macy's cosmetics department to do some shopping when they were killed. Galde was an Arlington resident and Dotson had recently moved in with her, according to The Herald. Before that, Dotson had lived in Darrington, Snohomish County, and in Tennessee.

Galde, 64,was employed as a probation officer in the Cascade Division of Snohomish County District Court, working out of Arlington. She had been employed there since 1989, according to a statement from the court,which called her death "an unimaginable and tragic loss."

"She was an amazing kind and caring individual who was much adored by her friends, her co-workers and the thousands of probationers who she helped find a better way to live," the statement said.

Rick Leo, a Snohomish County District Court commissioner, said he leaned on Galde for advice on how to help people navigating the criminal-justice system. "She was the person I went to on how to help them become better people on the other side," he said. "She was just a wonderful person."

Galde was a "truly compassionate and dedicated public servant,"Snohomish County District Court Judge Anthony Howard wrote in a Facebook post. "We are devastated beyond words that she and her mother were senselessly taken from us and her loving family."

Friend and former colleague Lynn McCormick, in an interview with The Herald, said Galde was "caring, but she could also be very tough, and she had to be."

She said Galde once ran a hairdressing business out of her family home.

McCormick remembered how her friend beamed when she talked about her family — her husband, her two daughters and her grandchildren.

"They just lit up her life," she told the newspaper.

McCormick said Galde also was devoted to her mother.

She described Dotson as "a class act, a Southern belle, a true Southern belle. Elegant. You could just picture her in some big Southern mansion."

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(Seattle Times staff reporters Sara Jean Green, Vernal Coleman, Jessica Lee, Mike Baker and Mike Carter and news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this story, which includes information from Times archives.)

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