COLUMBIA, Md. — A Maryland mall reopened Monday with increased security, somber memorials, and still unanswered questions about why a gunman killed two people and himself inside a store.
Shoppers were sparse in the early minutes of business, though white flowers were already scattered in a memorial fountain. As the community tried to get back to some sort of normalcy, investigators worked to piece together a motive for the shooting.
Police found a journal belonging to Darion Marcus Aguilar, 19, but they would only say that it ‘‘expressed general unhappiness.’’ The contents, however, were enough for an officer looking into the disappearance of Aguilar on the day of the shooting to worry about the teen’s safety.
Aguilar was supposed to work at Dunkin’ Donuts on Saturday morning, but he never showed up.
The shooting baffled investigators and acquaintances of Aguilar, a quiet teenager who graduated from high school last spring and had no previous run-ins with police.
McMahon said there was no evidence so far that Aguilar ever applied for a job at Zumiez or worked there.
Aguilar was accepted last February to Montgomery College, a community college in the Washington suburbs, but school spokesman Marcus Rosano said he never registered or attended.
Material from the Associated Press and New York Times was used in this report.