Former Target Employee ID’d as Missouri Mall Shooter

David W. Logsdon, 51, has been identified as the man who killed two people in a crowded parking lot at the Ward Parkway Mall Sunday before being shot by police. Authorities say that Logsdon, a former employee of the Target store at the mall, had applied to the police department to be certified as a security guard, but his application was denied because he had two outstanding city warrants against him.

"David Logsdon had a plan," said Kansas City Police chief James Corwin. "And that plan was that he had been an employee of that Target store and had been turned down for a private security license. His objective was to go to the mall and cause havoc."

Logsdon was stopped by police Sunday while driving his next-door neighbor’s car. The neighbor, Patricia Ann Reed, 67, had been found dead in her home several hours earlier. Police have not said whether or not Logsdon was a suspect in her death, but they have said that the events were most likely connected. When he was pulled over on Sunday, Logsdon shot the police officer in the arm. The officer then returned fire and shattered the driver’s side window of the car before Logsdon sped off.

Logsdon drove to the shopping center where he used to work, got out of the car, and started shooting. He killed two people in the parking lot and wounded seven others outside Target before going into the mall, where he was shot and killed by police. Corwin said that the victims shot appeared to be shot at random and did not known Logsdon.

Logdon’s sister, Kathryn Cagg, told reporters that her brother was an alcoholic and suffered from mental illness. She said that had been worried that he was going to commit suicide in late 2005 so they had taken him for treatment, but he was released after only six hours. Cagg apologized to the victims’ families in a press conference. "When a tragedy like this occurs, we want to understand the reasons. There is no way to understand this senseless act and so we must, we must turn it over to God," Cagg said.

Bomb squad crews were called out to Logsdon’s home on Monday after receiving reports that the house had been "booby-trapped with a self-made bomb." According to police, the device was actually "a propane tank with boxes surrounding it," and it was harmless.