Pierce County prosecutors say Laura K. Sorensen took three things into the Peninsula Market near Wauna on Saturday afternoon: a history of mental illness, a hatred of men and a gun.
By the time she left the Key Peninsula market in handcuffs, three men were wounded and blood covered the inside of the grocery at 14220 92nd Ave. N.W.
Sorensen later told Pierce County sheriff’s detectives “she had decided to kill herself and wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone else first,” court papers filed Monday show.
“She states she had been molested as a young child and hated men,” the records show. “She admitted going to the store with the intent to kill someone.”
The 20-year-old woman was charged Monday with two counts of attempted murder and one count of first-degree assault. She pleaded not guilty. Court Commissioner Craig Adams ordered her jailed in lieu of $1.5 million bail.
Sorensen has a history of mental illness and had past run-ins with police, but she has no criminal convictions, deputy prosecutor Patrick Cooper said.
She allegedly told a detective she’s on medication, court records show, and Adams ordered her to continue taking any valid prescriptions.
Sorensen, who lives in Gig Harbor with her mother, allegedly woke up Saturday morning and went to the Purdy home of her grandmother, where she retrieved a gun. She walked into the store about 12:45 p.m., put down her purse, pulled out a .357 magnum revolver and began firing, court records show.
“The victims did appear random,” Cooper said in court Monday.
A 40-year-old man suffered the most serious injuries. A bullet hit his upper right arm, continued through his chest and exited out his back, the records show. A 78-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. A 20-year-old man apparently was hit in the leg by shrapnel.
The 40-year-old man was listed in critical condition Monday at a local hospital.
A woman who’d been outside the store entered and held Sorensen down until sheriff’s deputies arrived, court records show. Witnesses said others tended to the wounded until paramedics got to the scene.
“The defendant had apparently put the gun down after all rounds were fired,” Cooper wrote in a declaration of probable cause. “… It appears the defendant made statements to at least two females present that she did not intend to hurt them.”
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com
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