Washington State Patrol/Handout via Reuters.

Cetin, an immigrant from Turkey who is a legal permanent resident of the United States, doesn’t seem to have made much of an effort to hide from police. After all, he was a resident of Oak Harbor who had graduated from Oak Harbor High School in 2015 so several people seem to have recognized him when his photograph popped up in the news on Friday night. He also doesn’t appear to have put up much resistance when he was arrested.




"As we were driving by, I see the fella walking across the street and I go, ‘Oh, that’s him’,” Island County Sheriff's Lt. Mike Hawley told KOMO News. "So I whipped a real quick U-turn and hit the lights, pulled my gun, and he was under arrest.” Hawley said that when he confronted the suspect, Cetin “just froze.” He was unarmed and was carrying a bag with a computer. "He was kind of zombie-like," Hawley said.

Witnesses of the arrest corroborated that the arrest was so calm it was difficult to believe this was the man suspected of killing five people in cold blood a day earlier. “It was all cordial, would be the way to put it. From what I saw, it was textbook,” a witness told the Seattle Times. “It didn’t look like he did anything but obey the orders of the officers.”

Court records show three domestic-violence assault charges against Cetin with the victim identified as his stepfather, reports the Seattle Times. Cetin was also arrested for drunken driving once. A judge told Cetin in December he was not allowed to own a firearm. At the time, his stepfather asked the judge not to impose a restraining order because Cetin was “going through a hard time” and he wanted to be able to help.

As part of the domestic violence case, Cetin was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation in August of last year, according to KIRO. That was completed in March 2016. And as of late August he appeared to be in compliance with weekly sessions of mental health counseling.