But for the off-duty deputy sheriff who shot him down, more people may have been killed.
Via Daily Mail:
Two people are dead after a suspect went on a stabbing rampage in Taunton, Massachusetts.
Arthur DaRosa, 28, of Taunton, stabbed two people at a home on Tuesday evening before driving to a mall and stabbing two more people inside, authorities said.
DaRosa went inside a home in Myricks Street and stabbed two women just after 7pm, District Attorney Thomas Quinn said.
One of them, who was 80 years old, died of her injuries. The other was taken to the hospital.
Sources told WHDH the 80-year-old was named Patricia Slavin and that the other woman was her daughter.
A neighbor interviewed by the network described Slavin and her family as ‘very nice people’, adding: ‘I couldn’t ask for better neighbors all around.’
A red pickup truck was later towed from the scene in Myricks Street.
DaRosa then went to the Silver City Galleria Mall, about three miles away, and crashed his car into a Macy’s store.
He went inside and assaulted three people inside Macy’s.
DaRosa then made his way to Bertucci, an Italian restaurant at the mall, where he stabbed two more people.
One of them, a 56-year-old man from Taunton, has died.
An off-duty sheriff shot DaRosa once inside the mall. DaRosa was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The six stabbing victims included a pregnant woman, a witness told WBZ. They were all taken to the hospital after the attack.
DaRosa’s motive remains under investigation but the attack didn’t seem related to terrorism, state police said. The family of DaRosa told WBZ that he went to a hospital on Monday for suicidal thoughts and was released shortly before the rampage.
I checked out Arthur Darosa’s Facebook page. There is no evidence of any Islamist connection (apart from the beard). In fact, he posts a picture of himself and his girlfriend with the overlay of the flag of France after the attacks in Paris, indicating his sympathy for Paris and the victims.He did have a prior arrest in November 2009 for assaulting someone with a computer chair, and was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, malicious damage to a motor vehicle, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. He’s a young father, 28, and the Facebook is full of pictures of his two little children.
He also coincidentally posts about the Darren Wilson-Mike Brown Ferguson encounter and appears to defend Darren Wilson, saying essentially he would have shot Brown too.
According to the Taunton Gazette:
The family told the Boston Herald that he had been hospitalized at Morton Hospital with suicidal thoughts on Monday.
“He went to the ER, they put him in the psych ward. All he kept saying … was the devil was playing tricks on him … “, Darosa’s sister said.
Darosa’s family said they were surprised he was released.
HT: SacKat, RosalindJ