Maryland mall shooting: Police hopeful Darion Aguilar journal gives answers in murder of Brianna Benlolo and Tyler Johnson
Authorities are still trying to piece together a motive for a Maryland teenager to gun down two people before killing himself in a Maryland mall over the weekend. Police report they are analyzing a journal belonging to the shooter where he “expressed general unhappiness” with his life.
Darion Aguilar, the Maryland mall shooter
The journal was found when the Prince George’s County Police Department received a missing persons report for 19-year-old Darion Marcus Aguilar Saturday afternoon, a couple of hours after the Mall of Columbia shooting. Two people were left dead: Brianna Benlolo and Tyler Johnson.
Authorities say Aguilar took a taxi to the mall on Saturday morning and entered the building near Zumiez. He went downstairs to a food court directly below the store, then returned less than an hour later, dumped the backpack in a dressing room and started shooting.
Aguilar was armed with a shotgun, “plenty” of ammunition and some “crude homemade explosives” police say.
He purchased the 12-gauge shotgun legally last month at a store in neighboring Montgomery County, and fired it six to nine times inside the mall.
Benlolo, a 21-year-old single mom lived near Aguilar but police have not reported a connection between the two. Police Johnson, the other victim, has no connection to Aguilar or Benlolo, which has been confirmed by relatives.
