I N T E R N AT I O N A LTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

OAK HARBOR: The 20-year-old man suspected ofkilling five people with a rifle at a Macy’s makeupcounter was described by a neighbor as so “creepy,rude and obnoxious” that she kept a Taser by herfront door. He also had a string of run-ins with thelaw in recent years, including charges he assaultedhis stepfather. As investigators tried to piecetogether information on Arcan Cetin, who wasarrested Saturday evening after a nearly 24-hourmanhunt, a picture emerged of a troubled youngman. Court records show more than a half-dozencriminal cases in Island County alone since 2013.Authorities said the gunman in the attack at theCascade Mall in Burlington opened fire in thedepartment store’s cosmetics department Fridaynight, killing a man and four females ranging froma teenager to a senior citizen. The killer then fled.

Cetin said nothing and appeared “zombie-like”when he was taken into custody on a sidewalk out-side his apartment complex some 30 miles away inOak Harbor by a sheriff’s officer who recognizedhim as the suspect in the rampage, authorities said.Cetin immigrated to the US from Turkey and is alegal permanent resident, officials said.

Motives still blurry As the surrounding area absorbed news of the

arrest, critical questions remained, including thegunman’s motive. The FBI said early Saturday thatthere was no indication the shooting was terrorism,but local authorities said later in the day that theywere ruling nothing out. On Sept 17, a 20-year-oldman stabbed 10 people at a Minnesota mall beforebeing shot to death by an off-duty police officer.Authorities said they are investigating the attack byDahir Ahmed Adan as a possible act of terrorism.

On Sunday, investigators searched Cetin’s vehi-cle and the apartment complex and were seen car-rying boxes from a rear, upstairs unit. The four-unitbuilding was surrounded with yellow police tape.Detectives would not say what they found. AmberCathey, 21, lived in an apartment next to Cetin for

the past three months and said she was so fright-ened by him that she complained to apartmentmanagement and kept a stun gun handy.

Cathey said she blocked him on Snapchat afterhe sent her a photo of his crotch. “He was reallycreepy, rude and obnoxious,” Cathey said. She saidshe would try to avoid him by walking the longway around to her apartment if she saw his car inthe parking lot. The two were in high schooltogether as well, and Cathey said he acted thesame way then. The Seattle Times reported thatcourt records show Cetin faced three charges ofassaulting his stepfather. The newspaper said Cetinalso was arrested on drunken driving charges. Itgave no details on when the arrests took place orhow the cases may have been resolved.

In the assault case, Cetin was told by a judgelast December that he was not to possess a gun,the newspaper reported. However, the stepfatherurged the judge not to impose a no-contact order,saying his stepson was “going through a hardtime.”Attempts to reach Cetin’s family for commentby phone and social media weren’t immediatelysuccessful. It wasn’t clear if Cetin had a lawyer yet.A man who came to the door Sunday morning atan Oak Harbor address believed to be where Cetin’sstepfather and mother live asked an AssociatedPress reporter to leave the property.

Police said that they interviewed the suspect’sformer girlfriend, who has worked a differentMacy’s. No other details were released, includingher name. Social media accounts apparentlybelonging to Cetin showed he had a fondness forthe military and video games. A Twitter accountshowed, among other things, selfies, photos of himin younger years and pictures of Turkish food. Heonce participated in paintball and said he “can’twait for Halo 5,” the first-person shooter videogame. He also tweeted: “Shout out to the ROTCpeeps.” A Facebook account showed he liked mili-tary-related sites. Cetin also appeared to haveblogs on the site Tumblr that had not been updat-ed in many months. They included seemingly ran-dom posts about serial killer Ted Bundy, a collec-tion of selfies, the top-secret Area 51 Cold War testsite and photos of Iranian Supreme LeaderAyatollah Khamenei and Islamic State group leaderAbu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. The two blogs linked backto each other and one of them linked to whatappeared to be his Twitter page.

Oak Harbor is a city of 22,000 on Whidbey Islandwith many military families associated with thenearby Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Thenames of the dead from the mall shooting werenot immediately released by police. But The SeattleTimes identified one as 16-year-old Sarai Lara. Hermother said she survived cancer as a young girland was a happy student. — AP

Mall shooting suspect: ‘Creepy,’

multiple arrests and disputes

Frightened neighbors kept safe-guards ready

MOUNT VERNON: This late Saturday, Sept 24,2016, image from video by KIRO7 photogra-pher Jeff Ritter shows suspected Cascade Mallshooter Arcan Cetin at Skagit County Jail inMount Vernon, Wash., after his arrest in OakHarbor. — AP

WASHINGTON: As defense secretary to a presidentwho famously envisioned “a world without nuclearweapons,” Ash Carter has said remarkably littleabout them. He has been quiet on a range ofnuclear issues, including the Pentagon’s $8 billioneffort to correct an array of morale, training, disci-pline and resource problems in the Air Force nuclearmissile corps, revealed by The Associated Press inthe last three years. Nor has he publicly explained indetail the utility of nuclear weapons, in an age ofattacks by non-state actors like the Islamic State, tobuild support for spending hundreds of billions on anew generation of them.

When asked, he has left no doubt that he seesnuclear weapons as the “bedrock” of US security.But he rarely reveals the underpinnings of his think-ing. This is all the more notable because Carter, aphysicist by training and policy wonk by reputation,cut his professional teeth on nuclear weapons dur-ing the Cold War. He probably knows more aboutthem than any defense secretary since WilliamPerry, a longtime nuclear expert, led the Pentagon ageneration ago.

This quiet approach is expected to end whenCarter visits Minot Air Force Base in North Dakotayesterday. There, he plans to deliver a speech onnuclear deterrence, the notion that a robust andready US nuclear force will make clear that the costof hitting the US would outweigh any benefit. It willmark his first visit to a nuclear weapons base sincebecoming defense chief in February 2015. Minot ishome to Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic mis-siles that stand in underground silos, ready fornuclear war. A portion of the Air Force’s B-52 bomberforce, including a number equipped to carry nuclearbombs, also are at Minot.

High-priority issues Like the three other men who have run the

Pentagon for President Barack Obama, Carter hasplenty of other high-priority issues to consume histime and attention, including the war against the

Islamic State group. Carter also has chosen to focuson what he calls the “force of the future” - a set ofpolicy initiatives meant to modernize the way thedefense establishment recruits and develops mem-bers of the armed services.

And he has given a great deal of attention toSilicon Valley and other technology hotbeds that hesees as potential keys to translating civilian innova-tion into US military advantage.

Nuclear weapons issues have taken a back seat,at least publicly. “Secretary Carter has not said muchon nuclear weapons, but his actions speak volumes,”says Joe Cirincione, president of the PloughsharesFund, an advocacy group that argues for nuclearreductions and against the administration’s plan tocommit hundreds of billions to build a next-genera-tion nuclear arsenal. “He has been the Dr No ofnuclear reductions, defending every program con-tract and resisting every cut in the nuclear force.”

A spokesman for Carter disputes that thePentagon chief has been quiet about nuclear issues.“He regularly speaks about the importance of thenuclear triad to our security, its importance in reas-suring our allies and deterring potential adversaries,and the need to ensure that we maintain and mod-

ernize that capability,” said Gordon Trowbridge, thePentagon’s deputy press secretary. Carter has talkedquite a lot about the nuclear weapons of othercountries. He chastised Russia for nuclear “sabre rat-tling,” endorsed the US nuclear deal with Iran andcriticized what he has called North Korea’s nuclear“pursuit and provocations.” But when it comes toAmerica’s own weapons, he has mostly limited him-self to broad references to their importance. Beforethis week, Carter had not given a speech aboutnuclear weapons nor visited a nuclear weaponsbase. His immediate predecessor, Chuck Hagel, visit-ed two of the three Air Force bases that operateMinuteman 3 missiles, plus one of the two Navybases for Trident nuclear submarines. Hagel also vis-ited a B-2 bomber base to highlight his support foran Air Force’s plan to build a new nuclear bomber.

Nuclear question Among Carter’s most substantial remarks about

nuclear weapons was his response earlier this monthto a question from a student at the University ofOxford in England after Carter spoke about theAmerican defense relationship with Britain. Carterwas asked whether he worries that important nuclearissues are being ignored or neglected.

“Well, it’s a blessing to be able to take the pub-lic’s mind off the nuclear question,” Carter began. Hesaid he was thankful that nuclear issues are “not inthe headlines.” He called deterrence the corner-stone of US strategic defense policy because “we’venever found another way to manage the unprece-dented risk inherently posed by the technology ofnuclear weapons.” He added, “We’re going to havenuclear weapons as far into the future as I can see.And they need to be safe, they need to be secure,they need to be reliable.” “Fortunately you don’t seeus using” nuclear weapons, Carter said in responseto a question last week from a sailor at thePentagon. “And that’s a good thing.” Nuclearweapons, he said, are “there in the background as aguarantor of our security.” — AP

Pentagon chief: Nuke expert

but says little about them

Defense Secretary Ash Carter

LONDON: Empty chairs, with images showing the faces of some of the 43 missingMexican students, are pictured during a protest outside the Mexican Embassy. — AFP

AYOTZINAPA: They turned classrooms attheir children’s college into dormitories,sleeping on the floor, but parents of 43Mexican students missing since 2014 won’trest until they find them. The mothers live inone classroom that still has a whiteboard,while fathers bunk in another. Mosquito netshang over their mattresses, but that didn’tstop one mother from being infect with Zika.

Two tables serve as makeshift altars withphotos of their boys next to religious icons.They pray to see their sons alive again, twoyears after they disappeared in a case thatremains unsolved, causing widespread angerat the failure of President Enrique PenaNieto’s government to find the students.

Around 20 parents have made the teachertraining college in Ayotzinapa, southernGuerrero state, their home since September27, 2014, the day after their sons vanishedfrom the city of Iguala. The night before,dozens of young men from the school hadgone to Iguala to seize buses for a protest inMexico City, but they were attacked by localpolice. Prosecutors say the officers handed 43of the students to a drug cartel, but whathappened next has been the subject of heat-ed debate.

The attorney general’s office initially saidthe cartel killed the students after confusingthem with a rival gang, incinerated their bod-ies at a garbage dump and tossed theremains in a river. Only one student has beenidentified through a bone fragment found atthe river. But independent experts from theInter-American Commission on Human Rightsrejected that conclusion, saying there was noscientific proof of such a massive fire at thelandfill. The parents always doubted the gov-ernment’s conclusions and the report helpsthem cling to hope that their sons can still befound. The attorney general’s office says it willsoon use laser scanning technology to lookfor clandestine graves in other locations andinvestigate if police from other towns wereinvolved in the mass disappearance.

The parents moved to the college becausethey live in remote parts of the impoverishedstate, and traveling is expensive for them.They wanted to be closer to the protests, andfight to find their children. Maria ElenaGuerrero’s voice shakes when she says shebelieves her son, Giovanni Galindo, whowould be 21 years old today, is still alive.

A cardboard hangs on the wall with verseswritten by Uruguayan poet Mario Benedetti:“Don’t give up. Please, don’t give up, even ifthe cold burns, even if fear bites, even if thesun sets and the wind goes silent.” Before thetragedy of September 26, 2014, Maria ElenaGuerrero was a stay-at-home mom, caring forher two children and her husband, AlfredoGalindo, a primary school teacher who stud-ied at Ayotzinapa.

She returns to her real home once amonth to see her 18-year-old daughter,Sandra, “because she feels lonely,” saidGuerrero, 45. But it’s her own daughter whosends her back to the college , saying “youhave to fight for my brother.” Since they lefttheir jobs, the parents receive donations in ashared bank account. A paper hanging on adoor says they must attend protests to earnthe aid. Nicanora Garcia Gonzalez has beenworking since age five. She’s a baker whomade bread in a wood oven back at her homeon the Pacific coast of Guerrero. But her jobnow is to find her son, Saul Bruno Garcia. Apicture of him rests on the table next to hermattress alongside medicine. She also has aphoto of her daughter-in-law’s brother, whois also missing.

“They were friends from kindergarten toprimary and secondary school. They camehere together and they were taken awaytogether,” Garcia Gonzalez said. The 57-year-old woman passes the time crocheting tow-els, which she sells. “We stand togetherbecause we have no other choice. We’re here,in the same place, suffering the same pain.Their pain is my pain and we feel like a familyhere,” she said. — AFP

Parents of Mexico’s missing

students live in classrooms

HOUSTON: A troubled lawyer openedfire on morning commuters in Houstonyesterday, injuring at least nine peoplebefore being fatally shot by police,authorities said. Six victims were taken tohospitals and three were treated at thescene after being shot at while insidetheir vehicles in the wealthy neighbor-hood of West University Place, actingHouston Police Chief Martha Montalvotold reporters.

One of the victims was in critical con-dition and another was in serious condi-tion. Montalvo declined to identify thesuspect but said he was a lawyer and hadconcerns about his law firm. HoustonMayor Sylvester Turner, in Cuba on a tripto develop trade relations, told reporters,

“The motivation appears to be a lawyerwhose relationship with his law firmwent bad.” The police bomb squad wassecuring the suspect’s car, which hadnumerous weapons in it and police wereplanning to search his house.

Broken glass from shattered car win-dows littered a parking lot in an upscaleshopping center near where the suspectfired 20 to 30 shots.

An unidentified woman, standingnext to a car with two bullet holes in thewindshield, told a local television stationshe heard “the bullets literally whiz by mywindow.” Live video streams showednumerous police cars and ambulances inthe area. There were also a few vehiclesseen with bullet holes. — Reuters

Troubled lawyer shoots

at 9 people in Houston