Shooting suspect had troubled youth

ALGER, Wash. – Neighbors remember the man accused in this week’s deadly shooting rampage in rural Washington as a boy who struggled through adolescence and was later diagnosed with serious mental illness and showed disturbing signs of violence.

As investigators worked to sort through eight crime scenes in and around this small northwest Washington town of fewer than 100 people, Isaac Zamora’s friends and family recounted his history of mental illness and run-ins with the law.

More than 100 investigators were working Thursday to quickly process the bloody crime scenes where six people were killed and four injured on Tuesday.

Zamora, 28, was ordered held Wednesday on $5 million bail for investigation of murder and attempted murder.

The attacks began Tuesday afternoon close to the home of his mother near Alger, about 70 miles north of Seattle. They continued amid a high-speed police pursuit on Interstate 5 and ended in Mount Vernon, about 20 miles south of Alger, when Zamora surrendered at a sheriff’s office.

Skagit County Deputy Coroner Bob Clark identified the dead Thursday as Skagit County sheriff’s Deputy Anne Jackson, 40, and Chester M. Rose, 58, both shot at the same location near Alger; two construction workers who were found shot nearby, David Thomas Radcliffe, 57, and Gregory Neil Gillum, 38, both of Mount Vernon; Julie A. Binschus, 48, of Sedro-Woolley, who was found a few houses away; and a motorist, Leroy Lange, 64, of Methow, who was shot and killed along the freeway.

Four other people, including a state trooper, suffered gunshot wounds or stabbings. Authorities say they have not determined a reason for the rampage.

Zamora had been admitted several times to hospitals for mental health treatment and attempted suicide several times, his friends and family said.

After the family’s home burned down when he was 14, a doctor diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

But in the past five years, Zamora has been in and out of courtrooms and was last released from jail about a month ago after serving six months for cocaine possession.