A male victim who sustained life-threatening injuries in a mall shooting in Washington state passed away on Saturday morning.
Sergeant Mark Francis, a public information officer with Washington State Patrol, tweeted a message confirming the 5th fatality of the previous night's incident at Cascade Mall in Burlington.
A lone gunman shot and killed four women instantly at the makeup department of Macy's department store, one of about 50 vendors at the shopping mall about 65 miles, or 105 kilometers, north of Seattle, the biggest city in the US Pacific Northwest state.
While the suspect, described by Francis as a "Hispanic male wearing grey" the night before, is still at large, security camera images were released by a multiple agency response team of Skagit county, where Burlington is located, to call for public help to identify the shooting.
The gunman, probably in his late teens or early 20s, appeared in an image before 7:00 p.m. local time to walk into the mall without a weapon, and showed up in another image holding a rifle. He was last seen on Friday night walking out from the enclosed mall toward the nearby Interstate 5 highway.
Washington State Patrol in the U.S. Pacific Northwest state said a lone gunman with a rifle was on the loose after the incident, which took place at Cascade Mall in Burlington.
Police initially reported four people were killed, then changed the fatalities to three, before revising the number again.
All four female victims were found at a Macy's department store in the mall which contains around 50 vendors. One male sustained life-threatening injuries and was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, which was about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Burlington.
The mall was located about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Seattle, the biggest city in the state.
Sergeant Mark Francis, a public information officer with the state patrol, told a press conference that the injured male "most likely will pass away."
Throughout the night, Francis tweeted a series of messages including a description of the shooter as a "Hispanic male wearing grey."
"Here is the shooter. We believe (there is) just one shooter ... armed with rifle," Francis noted, referring to a blurry image of the suspect from a security camera which was posted on Twitter social network.
The police were alerted about the incident at 6:58 p.m. local time (0058 GMT).
The shopping mall was evacuated, and searched by state and local law enforcement agencies.
Federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were sent to the scene.
The FBI has "no information to suggest additional attacks planned in WA state," the Seattle FBI office said in a Twitter posting.
