The Crime Scene at Mission Viejo Mall

UPDATE: The dead perp has been identified as 27-year old Kirk Christian Knight of Rancho Santa Margarita, a community just east of Mission Viejo.

MISSION VIEJO – It was the shoulder-length, gray-blond wig that tipped off Sunday evening shoppers at The Shops at Mission Viejo that something wasn't right.

Minutes later, after robbing a jewelry store, the man in the wig would be lying in the mall parking structure, shot dead by sheriff's deputies after he fired at a crowd of security guards and customers, and then at officers.

Authorities identified the jewelry thief as Kirk Christian Knight, a 27-year-old unemployed man from south Orange County, who was armed with armor-piercing bullets and extra ammunition when he smashed through display cases, grabbing watches and gems from an upscale jeweler. Knight had already had a couple of run-ins with the law, including a conviction in Arizona for possession of burglary tools.

In a follow-up to this post on the Mission Viejo Mall shooting yesterday, I stopped by there today to confirm a couple of things that I thought last night. I took a few cellphone photos along the way (I didn't use my regular camera since that might have attracted a litte more attention than I really wanted).

The store in question is one of 10 jewelry stores listed in the mall directory (though a couple don't have high-end stuff). This store was located on the 2nd floor next to Nordstorms and not more than a dozen steps or so from the bridge entrance to South parking garage. It's a bad location for a store with very expensive merchandise and I'm surprised the company's security director would accept a location like that.

There are a couple of larger jewelry stores in the mall, but they are located in the center portion of the mall and are quite a ways from any entrance. They would certainly be less likely targets for a robbery. Bad guys don't like to go running through busy malls to make their escape.

Just a few steps from the store is the bridge that leads across to the parking garage where the shooting took place. The store was closed today, though there was an employee inside. All the merchandise had been removed from the window displays and the other display cases were covered. I don't know if there are plans to reopen, but I'd be surprised if they reopened in that location.

On my way out to the car I saw the posted "rules" for the mall. One item caught my eye:

In case you're having trouble reading it, the item in the middle says "No weapons of any kind are permitted on mall property." I guess the bad guy didn't read the sign. Of course, any citizen with a carry permit wouldn't be allowed to bring their weapon on the grounds either, thus ensuring a mall full of prospective victims for anybody else who chooses not to read the sign. Gun restrictions like this only serve to disarm the good guys. The bad guys don't care.

UPDATE: More details from the Sheriff's Department:

The deputies were on patrol in the area when dispatchers received a 911 call at 5:25 p.m. of a robbery inside the mall.

Witnesses said a man wearing a "a very bad wig" entered the Fredric H. Rubel store. The man led two female employees to the back of the store and when he came back out, he began to smash glass display cases and grabbing the jewelry, placing the goods inside a briefcase, Anderson said.

Employees at nearby stores and onlookers were able to see employees inside the store standing stiff with their arms at their sides.

"The neighboring stores started noticing something different," Anderson said.

Less than five minutes after the man had entered the store, a crowd, including an unarmed security guard, started gathering outside the store, Anderson said.

Apparently noticing that he was garnering attention, the man pulled out a semi-automatic handgun, causing shoppers and workers to scream and run.

The suspect ran out of the mall through Nordstrom to the parking structure.

The two deputies, who were on patrol in the area, had just parked on a street between the structure and the mall. Knowing that the suspect was on his way out of the mall, they ran to the second floor of the structure, which is connected to Nordstrom by a bridge.

Deputies shouted at the suspect and identified themselves as he was running away from them, Anderson the said. The wigged man turned around and shot twice at the deputies.

The officers did not return fire at that time because of they felt they were too far away from the suspect to fire accurately, Anderson said. Although the suspect was out of the mall and away from shoppers, the deputies were concerned that people might be inside parked cars in the area, he said.

"They are well trained and they are not going to shoot in places that are unsafe," he said.

The suspect then began running to the deputies' right, weaving between cars, Anderson said.

As deputies approached, the gunman threatened them. They fired, fatally wounding him.

It was the first time either of the deputies was involved in a fatal shooting, Anderson said.

It is unknown how many times the suspect was shot, or how many times the deputies fired.

That's all I need to know. Case closed.

By the way, some moron commenter over at The Register actually suggested that the robbery and shooting was George Bush's fault. She blamed crime on a weakening economy. That's taking Bush Derangement Syndrome a bit too far.