Mike on Crime

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. – “I kill for God. I listen to God,” a man accused of a northwest Washington shooting rampage said Friday at a hearing where six charges of first-degree murder and four of first-degree assault were filed against him.

Isaac Zamora made the chilling comment twice at the brief hearing in Skagit County District Court while investigators wrapped up their work at eight crime scenes. The 28-year-old is being held on $5 million bail in the wake of Tuesday’s rampage, which left six people dead and four injured.

District Court Judge Warren Gilbert read each charge and the penalties, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. That doesn’t mean the death penalty is off the table, according to the Skagit County prosecutor.

“Do you talk about it? Sure you talk about it,” Prosecutor Rich Weyrich told the Skagit Valley Herald. “Where it goes, it’s way too early to decide that.”

Zamora was not required to enter a plea Friday. The charges filed in District Court allow Zamora to be held in custody for 30 days. He will later be formally charged in county Superior Court.

A hearing has been set for Oct. 3.

The affidavit for probable cause, which details in support of the charges, remains sealed for 10 more days while the investigation continues.

The attacks began near Zamora’s mother’s home near the tiny town of Alger, 110 kilometres north of Seattle, and continued on Interstate 5. After a high-speed police pursuit, Zamora surrendered at a sheriff’s office in Mount Vernon, about 32 kilometres south of Alger.

Among the dead was Skagit County Deputy Sheriff Anne Jackson, who had gone to check on Zamora after his mother called authorities.

Also killed were a man shot at the same location as Jackson; two male construction workers shot nearby; a 48-year-old woman found a few houses away; and a 64-year-old motorist killed along I-5 near a rest stop, authorities said. Two people were wounded near Alger – one by stabbing – and two were wounded on the freeway, including a state trooper.

Zamora, who has a long record of run-ins with the law, had been admitted several times to hospitals for mental health treatment and attempted suicide several times, his friends and family said.