Investigators don't believe the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Richard Shoop, intended to shoot anyone when he began firing at the ceiling and elsewhere at the Garden State Plaza on Monday night shortly before the mall's closing time, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said.
‘We think he went in with the intent that he was not going to come out alive,’ Molinelli said.
He said Shoop was known to authorities and had had a problem with drugs, but he did not elaborate. The prosecutor said Shoop left an ambiguous note with his family.
While Molinelli would not call it a suicide note, he said it did ‘express that an end is coming. It could have been prison... It could have been what he did last night. It gave his family reason to reach out to us.’
Shoop's body was discovered around 3:20 am on Tuesday in a back corridor of the mall, deep within a lower level, in an area that is not accessible to the public, Paramus police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said.
Shoop did not work at the mall, he said, and police are still trying to determine why he went there.
‘We think he went in with the intent that he was not going to come out alive,’ Molinelli said.
He said Shoop was known to authorities and had had a problem with drugs, but he did not elaborate. The prosecutor said Shoop left an ambiguous note with his family.
While Molinelli would not call it a suicide note, he said it did ‘express that an end is coming. It could have been prison... It could have been what he did last night. It gave his family reason to reach out to us.’
Shoop's body was discovered around 3:20 am on Tuesday in a back corridor of the mall, deep within a lower level, in an area that is not accessible to the public, Paramus police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said.
Shoop did not work at the mall, he said, and police are still trying to determine why he went there.