Associated Press
TAUNTON, Mass. — A Massachusetts man described by his family as mentally disturbed went on a stabbing rampage hours after leaving a hospital, killing two people and assaulting and stabbing more in a house and a shopping mall before being fatally shot by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy.
The suspect in the attacks was identified as Arthur DaRosa, of Taunton. Officials said they are searching for a motive for the attacks.
DaRosa was described by his sister and father as mentally disturbed, the Boston Herald reported. They said he had claimed that the devil was trying to make him do things.
Kerri Devries said her younger brother had battled depression for years and that he was hospitalized as recently as Monday.
“He told them how depressed he was and how he didn’t want to live anymore and they still let him leave,” Devries told the Herald.
DaRosa’s father said he visited his son in the hospital Monday night and was surprised when he showed up at the family’s home Tuesday morning.
“He needed help, so we tried very much to help,” the elder Arthur DaRosa told the newspaper. “Why did they release him this morning? That’s the question. He came over to get his keys to go to work. He was good. Normal. No attitude. He was calm.”
The elder DaRosa said the last he heard was that his son went to his own daughter’s soccer game Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities said the rampage began when the 28-year-old DaRosa crashed a car outside of a house in the city, about 40 miles south of Boston. He walked inside the home and stabbed two women. An 80-year-old was taken to a hospital, where she later died. The other woman was being treated for life-threatening injuries.
DaRosa then drove to the Silver City Galleria mall, where he crashed into the front of a Macy’s department store, authorities said.
Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III said when DaRosa got out of the vehicle, he assaulted a number of people inside the Macy’s before making his way to Bertucci’s restaurant.
Once inside the restaurant, he stabbed two people, including a 56-year-old man who later died, Quinn said. An off-duty sheriff’s deputy intervened and shot DaRosa once. The suspect was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“Tragedy has certainly hit the city of Taunton hard here this evening,” Taunton Mayor Tom Hoye said late Tuesday.
“I’d like to thank the off-duty sheriff, Hoye said. “If it wasn’t for his heroic actions there could have been more loss of life here this evening.”
Witnesses described the scene at the mall as chaotic.
Alex Mace and Jenn Breault told WBZ-TV that they had just arrived when they spotted a young girl hiding in the bushes outside of Bertucci’s.
“She wasn’t really crying you could just tell she was scared for her life, she was kind of hiding behind a bush with her head down, Mace told the television station.
The young girl told the couple what she had just seen.
“She saw a guy walk in and he grabbed a chair to hurt one of the waitresses and she saw him stab the waitress,” Breault said.
Authorities did not immediately identify the victims or what connections they may have had, if any, to the suspect.
A motive for the attacks remains under investigation.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press