Brianna Benlolo/Facebook
Brianna Benlolo, 21, was one of two mall employees who was shot at the suburban Baltimore Mall in Columbia.
Maryland police have identified the gunman who killed two people and injured five more in a horrifying mall shooting Saturday before killing himself. But police have yet to make a connection between the shooter and his two victims.
Darion Marcus Aguilar, 19, of College Park, Md., took a cab to the mall in Columbia at 10:15 a.m. and then killed Brianna Benlolo, 21, of College Park, and Tyler Johnson, 25, of Ellicott City, who worked at Zumiez, located on the second floor of the Mall in Columbia, above the food court, police said.
Five other people – one who was shot in the foot – were treated at a local hospital and released Saturday. Police said the gunman fired between six and eight shots with a 12-gauge shotgun he bought in December.
A report by TV station WBAL reported that the gunman is the ex-boyfriend of Benlolo, and that Benlolo and Johnson were engaged.
Tyler Johnson, the 25-year-old victim in the Columbia mall shooting.
“We can’t establish if there is a connection, we can’t establish if there is not a connection,” Hunterdon County Police Chief Edward J. McMahon said in a press conference Sunday morning. “We just don’t know and that’s what we’re looking to find out now.”
Police said the gunman lived with his mother, and that they seized computers and documents from his home. He had brought a backpack that was filled with non-sophisticated explosives, McMahon said.
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He did not have a criminal history, McMahon said.
Evan Vucci/AP
Police talk in a parking lot outside a the Mall in Columbia in Maryland, where a gunman killed two and injured five before taking his own life.
Police arrived at the sprawling mall only two minutes after the first 911 calls were placed at 11:15 a.m. and secured the shopping center by 1 p.m.
Benlolo’s grandfather, John Feins, said in a telephone interview from Florida that his granddaughter had a 2-year-old son and that the job at Zumiez was her first since she went back to work after her son’s birth.
“She was all excited because she was the manager there,” he said.
He said he had spoken with his daughter, Brianna’s mother, earlier in the day, but didn’t know who the gunman was or whether the person knew his granddaughter.
bennylulu_ via Instagram
Briana Benlolo (pictured) is believed to be the ex-girlfriend of shooter Darion Marcus Aguilar.
“It’s senseless. It’s totally, totally senseless,” he said.
He described his daughter’s family as a military family that had moved frequently and had been in Colorado before moving to Maryland about two years ago. He said his granddaughter was on good terms with her son’s father, and they shared custody.
“I mean what can you say? You go to work and make a dollar and you got some idiot coming in and blowing people away,” he said.
JAMES LAWLER DUGGAN/Reuters
Montgomery County Police arrive to support Howard County after a shooting in Columbia, Md.
Benlolo was a first assistant manager at the store, according to her Facebook page.
The Zumiez store where the shooting occurred released a statement Saturday evening on its Facebook page.
“We are deeply saddened by the violence that has occurred this morning within our store in Maryland at The Mall in Columbia. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families,” the store’s CEO Rick Brooks said. “The Zumiez team is a tight knit community and all of our hearts go out to Brianna and Tyler’s families.”
The store said they will decline any additional comment and are working with police on their investigation.
JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS
Police escort potential witnesses to their cars after holding them for interviews after a shooting at the Mall of Columbia.
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The mall will remain closed until Tuesday at the latest.
The mall was crowded and some patrons remained in the shopping center a few hours after the shooting until the mall was cleared.
One frightened witness who works at Cartoon Cuts told NBCWashington.com that the sound of gunfire alarmed her. “It sounded like someone dropped something,” she told the NBC site, “and all of a sudden, I see people fall to the ground. … I just saw everybody run, so I ran.”
JOSHUA ROBERTS/REUTERS
Police walk in a front of an entrance to the Mall in Columbia after a shooting on Saturday.
Ian Kennedy, whose wife Lena and their 2-year-old child were in the mall at the time of the shooting, told The News that he was en route to the Mall in Columbia when he got a heart-stopping text. “She said, ‘Don’t come, there’s a shooter’ and said she was hiding in a closet,” the 35-year-old nonprofit communications director said.
Lena Kennedy was able to escape, but her husband said he couldn’t understand how a safe suburban neighborhood mall could become a scene of carnage.
“There’s disbelief, there’s sorrow, there’s anger,” he said of the mall, which he has been going to for 30 years. “There are no answers.”
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JAMES LAWLER DUGGAN/Reuters
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman (L) and Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon speak to reporters after a shooting.
Workers at the mall echoed the sentiment. “I truly never thought something like this would ever happen here,” said Allison Cohen, who works at apparel store Lucky Brand Jeans. “It’s really, really shocking.”
Joan Harding of Elkridge, Md., was shopping with her husband, David, for a tiara for their granddaughter’s 18th birthday. She said she heard something heavy falling, followed by gunshots and people running.
“My husband said, ‘Get down!’ and the girl that worked in the store said, ‘Get in the back,”‘ Harding said. That is where they hid until police searched the mall and signaled it was safe to leave.
Tonya Broughton of Silver Spring, Md., was with a friend getting facials for a “girls’ morning out,” she said. “The only thing I heard was all the people running and screaming and saying, ‘There’s a shooter! There’s a shooter!”‘ she said.
Wearing a gel face mask, she and her friend hid in a Victoria’s Secret store.
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman spoke of the sadness due to the tragedy Sunday, but said he was proud of all the people who helped each other during the tragedy at the mall.
“People were just showing compassion and support for their fellow citizens — complete strangers,” he said.
The shopping center, located in Howard County, is located between Baltimore and Washington.
With News Wire Services
jlandau@nydailynews.com Follow on Twitter @joelzlandau
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