COLUMBIA, Md. (AP) - The mall where a Maryland teenager gunned down two people before killing himself has reopened to shoppers.
The Mall in Columbia opened at 1 p.m. Monday, two days after a man with a shotgun killed two employees of a skateboard gear shop.
The Zumiez store where the shooting took place was covered by white boards as if the shop was under construction. Messages thanked first responders and encouraged people to leave condolence messages for the two slain workers.
Crowds of shoppers were sparse in the early minutes of business, though white flowers were already scattered in a memorial fountain.
Howard County Executive Ken Ullman, who is also the running mate for Democratic Gubernatorial hopeful Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, planned to visit the mall this afternoon and urged people to join him.
Identity
Police have identified the shooter in the Maryland mall shooting as a 19-year-old teenager from College Park. Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon said Darion Marcus Aguilar arrived at the mall after 10 a.m. on Saturday and shot to death two people at a store on the upper level before killing himself.
McMahon said police are trying to determine whether Aguilar knew either of the victims.
Police identified the victims as 21-year-old Brianna Benlolo of College Park, Md., and 25-year-old Tyler Johnson of Ellicott City, Md. Both worked at a skateboard shop called Zumiez.
Journal
Meanwhile, police say they have found the Maryland mall gunman's journal and it expresses some general unhappiness, but they say they still are not sure of a motive in the shooting.
McMahon said Sunday night that they had taken the journal from Aguliar's house, but he did not give any specifics about what it contained.
He says they are still interviewing friends and family of the gunman and the victims, but authorities are not sure yet whether they knew each other.
Aguliar killed two people at the Mall in Columbia on Saturday before turning the gun on himself. Police say he was armed with a shotgun, plenty of ammunition and a backpack filled with crude homemade explosives.
