Man accused of killing 6 in Wash. recently jailed

A shooting rampage in which six people died and four others were wounded along a trail of blood stretching from a tiny town to the state's busiest highway ended with the surrender of a man who was recently released from jail, authorities said.

The man's mother said he had been living in the woods, described him as "desperately mentally ill" and added that a Skagit County sheriff's deputy he's accused of killing had tried to help the family for years.

State Department of Corrections officials identified the gunman in Tuesday's deadly spree as Isaac Zamora, 28, who was released from jail Aug. 6 after serving a six-month sentence for drug possession in Skagit County, a mostly rural area in northwest Washington.

Zamora was charged Wednesday with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, but police Sgt. Robert Goetz said he expected more charges would be filed as the investigation continued. Zamora was scheduled for an initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon in Mount Vernon.

The shootings, the first of which were reported shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday in this small town 70 miles north of Seattle, culminated in a high-speed chase about 20 miles south along Interstate 5 to Mount Vernon, where Zamora drove to a Skagit County sheriff's office and gave himself up at about 4:30 p.m., Washington State Patrol Trooper Keith A. Leary said.

One of the four injured, Goetz said, is a 61-year-old man who was stabbed in the chest. He was being treated at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham. Hospital officials declined to release information about his condition.

A 56-year-old man was shot, Goetz said. Both men were injured in the Alger area, he said.

Investigators were unsure if Zamora knew any of the people who were killed or injured, said Goetz, who is an officer with Everett police and was speaking on behalf of a multi-agency response team.

Since his release last month, Zamora had been under community supervision by corrections officers, spokesman Chad Lewis said.

Zamora's mother said she had tried repeatedly to get help for her son.

"We're so devastated for the families," Dennise Zamora told The Associated Press by telephone. "I wish it would have been him or me that was killed. That's how deeply I feel about it."

She told The Seattle Times that her son had lived in the woods off and on for years, was unaware of his mental illness and resisted all efforts to get him to accept treatment.

The six who died included sheriff's Deputy Anne Jackson, 40, who was shot while responding to the initial call by Dennise Zamora. The mother told The Times she called after seeing her son going into and out of her neighbors' home.

The names of other victims were expected to be released later Wednesday after the coroner positively identifies them, Leary said.

The dead were found at multiple scenes. Jackson and a second person were killed at the same location near Alger, two construction workers were found shot nearby, and a body was found a few houses away, Leary said. A motorist was killed along Interstate 5 near a rest stop, Leary said.

A state trooper was shot and wounded while trying to stop the shooter on the freeway, the State Patrol said, and a motorcyclist was shot in the arm at a Shell gas station in Alger.

It was not immediately clear if Zamora had been shooting as he drove, or if he had pulled over and started firing.

"Some of these are just random shootings," Leary said.

There are eight crime scenes, which are being investigated by more than 100 people from 15 different agencies, he said, adding that investigators had not yet determined why Zamora went on the rampage.

"We're not speculating as to what happened," Leary said. "It's too early to tell what took place at each scene."

Dennise Zamora described Jackson as a sympathetic figure who had tried to help the family in the past.

"She was very gracious," she said. "She knew exactly what we were going through, said her brother was going through some similar stuff."

Tributes to Jackson, flowers, lighted candles, a stuffed bear and a handwritten banner reading "Heroes (at) home in our hearts" were placed outside the sheriff's office.

Barbara Crossen, 62, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer she had known Isaac Zamora from birth, described him as the younger of two boys, both home-schooled, and said he had worked in construction.

"He was just a quiet, easygoing kid, never demanding a lot of attention," she said. "This was a shock to absolutely everybody."

He recently told Crossen's husband he had gotten a truck to start a painting business, she said.

"Just last week, he was out here riding a motorcycle and wrecked it," Crossen said.

After the shootings in the Alger area, the armed man raced south on the freeway at speeds in excess of 90 mph, with troopers, sheriff's deputies and Mount Vernon police in pursuit, Leary said.

The wounded trooper, Troy Giddings, drove himself to a hospital and was released after treatment.

Since his release from jail, Zamora had reported as ordered to corrections officials and had passed drug and alcohol screenings, state Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail said.

"I want to extend our profound sorrow and heartfelt sympathy for the victims of the shootings," Vail said. "This is a senseless loss of the lives of innocent citizens and a member of our law-enforcement family."

Gov. Chris Gregoire called for an independent third-party review to be led by the head of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs and a prosecutor to be appointed by the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

"I will be directing them to look into how this case was handled and provide an initial report to me within 10 days," Gregoire said late Tuesday night.

Hours after the shootings, a group of residents gathered at the Alger Bar and Grill to watch the television news. "It's devastating for this town," Steve Thomas said, "The people here are very law enforcement-friendly. It's very somber."

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Associated Press writer Kathy McCarthy in Seattle contributed to this report.