Hostage on shooter: "He was just a kid"

TACOMA — After he shot up Tacoma Mall and took four hostages, Dominick Sergio Maldonado had one demand: He wanted to confront three police officers he claimed had embarrassed him as a child.

Joe Hudson, one of four people held hostage in a mall music store Sunday, said Maldonado claimed he had been treated "like a prisoner" at a childhood summer camp by the officers. They made fun of him and humiliated him, Hudson said.

Maldonado's initial demand to police negotiators, Hudson said, was that the three officers come to the gate of the barricaded mall store and apologize.

Maldonado softened his demands during the four-hour ordeal, Hudson said. In the end, after four hours, two of the hostages walked the weeping gunman out of the store, where he was arrested by police. He kept repeating, "I don't know what to do."

Hostage Jon Black said that at first, when he was face-down on the floor of the Sam Goody store Sunday afternoon, he thought Maldonado would kill him.

As bullets flew over Black's head, Maldonado described what the weapons would do to him. Black said he was terrified.

"This guy had already hurt people," he said. "My first thought is that we were going to die."

But over the next four hours, Black and two other hostages, listening to Maldonado, realized he was young and scared.

"When I'd look into his eyes, he was just a kid," Black said.

Black was shopping for CDs at the music store with his wife on Sunday at around noon when police say Maldonado, 20, opened fire inside Tacoma Mall. He shot six people before running into the Sam Goody store and taking Black, a 9-year-old boy and two store managers, including Hudson, hostage. Black's wife, Desiree, and other customers escaped out the store's back door.

Black and Hudson discovered the 9-year-old boy while they were following Maldonado's demands to barricade the store entrance with displays. The boy was hiding beneath a display, so Hudson said he hid the boy with boxes. The boy stayed hidden for about an hour before being discovered by Maldonado. Maldonado released the boy to police about 45 minutes later, Hudson said.

Hudson, an Iraq war veteran, said Maldonado never took his finger off the trigger of one of his two loaded semi-automatic rifles. But as they talked, Maldonado's demeanor changed.

"It changed from being self-conscious, to being worried, and then to being sympathetic to us, and then to being scared," he said. "He actually mentioned to us that he had taken some meth before all of this and then, when that wore off, he realized what he had really done."

He asked the hostages if they thought he had killed anyone, and asked how much time they thought he would spend in prison. He told them, Hudson said, that he had intended to shoot himself but lost his nerve.

Black said he and the other hostages told Maldonado about their families. When they finished talking, Maldonado started.

"He shared everything about himself," Black said. Maldonado said he grew up in a bad neighborhood and felt like nobody was listening to him.

Hudson said Maldonado told of trying to commit suicide seven times in one year, and "he felt like nobody even cared."

He described being made fun of during his childhood. Particularly, he said, three police officers embarrassed him at a childhood summer camp. Maldonado didn't offer specifics on the camp but told the hostages the officers were from Steilacoom and Lakewood.

Lakewood and Steilacoom police could not be reached Monday night. Tacoma police said Monday night they weren't looking into Maldonado's claims because they didn't involve criminal allegations.

Mark Fulghum, public-information officer for Tacoma police, confirmed that Maldonado demanded to talk to specific officers from a camp. But Fulghum said at least one of the officers had nothing to do with the camp.

Black said it became clear partway through the ordeal Sunday that Maldonado just wanted someone to listen to him. Left no other choice, the hostages did.

"We gave him the floor for four hours," he said.

Toward the end of the standoff, the mall lights went out and there was a loud crash from outside the store. Black said he now believes the noise was something giving way after being damaged by earlier shooting. But Sunday afternoon, he, the other hostages and Maldonado thought the police were rushing the store.

"He held the weapon pretty close and was getting pretty nervous," Black said.

Soon after, Maldonado agreed to surrender. He took apart his assault rifles and slid them over to Black and Hudson, who both had military training.

He was worried about being rushed by police and seemed overwhelmed by the damage he had caused.

"He didn't know what to do," Black said.

Times staff reporter Jennifer Sullivan contributed to this report. Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com