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Garden State Plaza mall shooter Richard Shoop, 20, was investigated as part of a massive Hackensack drug probe, city police said Tuesday. Shoop killed himself after firing shots at the mall Nov. 4, 2013.

(Hackensack Police Department)

HACKENSACK — The Garden State Plaza mall gunman left a note saying he suspected he was under investigation and sold drugs to an undercover officer 10 days before he killed himself at the state's largest shopping center in November, police said Tuesday.



Richard Shoop, 20, of Teaneck, was among at least 100 people nabbed in a months long narcotics crackdown in Hackensack, according to Hackensack Police Director Michael Mordaga. Authorities have said Shoop may have feared a possible pending arrest in the days leading up to his Nov. 4 suicide, but the police announcement was the first time officials publicly acknowledged he was among those targeted in an undercover probe.

An autopsy showed Shoop had Molly, generally a powder form of Ecstasy, in his body when he opened fire at the mall before killing himself, Mordaga revealed in a statement.

Investigators began eyeing Shoop as part of a case into a group dealing Molly in the Hackensack-area, Mordaga said. Shoop and others were involved with importing “raw materials” from China used to make their own Molly.

City police arrested Shoop on April 23 as he delivered the drug near Anderson Street Park, Mordaga said. The investigation continued and on Oct. 24, he sold Molly to an undercover officer, police added.

Ten days later, Shoop walked into the mall armed with a .22 caliber rifle he took from his older brother and fired several shots, according to authorities. The gunfire touched off a major police response and panicked scores of shoppers.

About six hours later, a heavily-armed law enforcement team found Shoop dead in a secluded area of the mall. Investigators have said they don’t believe he aimed to hurt anyone and his public suicide left friends baffled.

Shoop apparently feared police were closing in before his death and texted the girlfriend of his longtime friend Jordan Conahan about three hours before he went to the mall.

"He texted her saying cops have been watching me and I'm going to leave my car to you in my will," Conahan told The Star-Ledger.

In the announcement Tuesday, authorities named Shoop and said more than 160 alleged street and mid-level drug dealers were rounded up in what Hackensack police officials said was the largest such crackdown in city history. Those charged included a convicted sex offender, a convicted murderer and an emergency medical technician.