Suspect in fatal shooting of five at US mall captured

A man believed to have opened fire with a rifle at a US mall, killing five people, was captured on Saturday, one day after the attack, authorities said.

Washington State Patrol spokesperson Keith Leary said in a phone interview that the suspect was taken into custody but declined to immediately release more details.

Seattle television station KOMO reported on Twitter that the suspect had been captured in Oak Harbor, a community about 48 kilometres southwest of Burlington where the mall shooting occurred on Friday.

Television station KIRO, citing people who know the suspect, reported he is 20 years old and lives with his family in Oak Harbor, where he graduated from high school in 2015. It showed a video of police leading a young man, who did not resist, to a vehicle.

Washington state police officials said on Twitter that authorities would provide further details at a news conference.

The suspect, whose name has not been released, is believed to have entered the Cascade Mall in Burlington, around 105 km north of Seattle, and began shooting at about 7 pm local time on Friday in the cosmetics section of a Macy's department store, police said.

He initially walked into the shopping center without the rifle but surveillance video later caught him brandishing the weapon, said Lieutenant Chris Cammock of the Mount Vernon Police Department at a briefing on Saturday.

The rifle was later recovered at the mall, said Cammock, commander of the Skagit County Multi-Agency Response Team.

Four women were killed in the rampage. Later, a man who was shot, died. None of the victims were identified.

Steve Sexton, the mayor of Burlington, described the shooting as a "senseless act."