VANCOUVER, Wash. — On Halloween night, as hundreds of kids and parents were inside the Vancouver Mall enjoying a family-friendly trick-or-treating event, gunshots rang out from the second-story food court. The shooting ended with a father dead and two other men injured — and it caused widespread panic.
Police didn't arrest anyone that night. But in the days that followed, they identified a suspect and took him into custody.
In later statements, the Vancouver Police Department said that 32 year-old Travis Ward walked into the mall with his mom, girlfriend and daughter. Surveillance video captured Ward putting on a Joker-style Halloween mask before walking up to the second-floor food court of the mall, police say, where he allegedly shot 26-year-old James Perez in the back of the head, killing him.
READ MORE: Suspect in deadly Vancouver Mall shooting put on Joker mask before stalking victim, court docs say
The two other men received minor injuries from stray bullets as the shooter continued firing rounds at Perez. They have since been released from the hospital and are recovering at home.
Police arrested Ward at his Vancouver apartment two days later, on Nov. 2. Ward has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty during one of his first court appearances. He was denied bail and has remained in the Clark County jail since his arrest.
Detectives question Travis Ward
In a video obtained by KGW through a public records request, Vancouver detectives question Ward about the shooting. The interview lasts roughly 17 minutes from the moment police read Ward his Miranda rights to when he asks for a lawyer.
The video starts as police escort Ward in handcuffs into an interview room of the Vancouver Police Department. Officers make small talk with Ward as they are adjusting his handcuffs. He then tells them he has an injury to his hand.
"I got a broken hand," Ward is heard saying.
"Your hand is broke?" one of the officers asks.
"Yes sir," Ward responds.
The officers move his hands and handcuffs to his front, then place his feet in shackles as well before he is sat down at a table and offered something to drink. He tells the officer he'd like a Gatorade and water.
The officers walk out, and two minutes later, two detectives walk in — identifying themselves as only "Dustin" and "Deanna."
They start by asking Ward to verify his personal information, such as date of birth and middle name. They ask him about his daughter and her name and age, as well as his girlfriend's name. At 7:15 p.m., according to the timestamp on the video, a detective reads Ward his Miranda Rights.
"Do you want to chat about what happened at the mall?" Dustin asks.
"I don't know what's going on," Ward says in a soft voice, his head hanging down.
"Do you want me to explain to you what's going on?" Dustin asks. "Shooting occurred at the mall. That's why you're here. Person, James Perez, deceased inside the food court, along with a couple of other people that got hit from gunfire. That's what we're here for. Looking for an opportunity for you to tell me what happened at the mall, but it got kind of out of hand real quick."
"I don't know what happened at the mall," Ward responded. "I don't know who that people is."
The detective then clarifies Ward's statements asking him if he was ever at the mall.
"We went to the mall, but all that occurred, so it was no point in me making into the mall, by the time it occurred," Ward said.
The detective asks again if Ward was at the mall.
"I just want to make sure I understand you ... by the time you got to the mall, something occurred so you left?" Dustin asked.
"Yeah, there was just a lot of stuff going on so we left," Ward replied.
"Had the shooting occurred when you got there or it hadn't occurred?" Dustin asks.
"No, I'm not sure," Ward responds. "I didn't never make it in."
The two go back and forth about whether or not Ward was inside the mall when the shooting happened. Ward then says again that his family was there, but left.
"Something happened and we got my family and we left. That's it. I don't want to talk about nothing else. That's all I know."
The Vancouver police detective then tells Ward he's being charged with first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree assault and says other charges might be following.
"What do you mean?" Travis asks, seemingly confused. "How am I being charged with something, though?"
"Because when you entered the mall, with (your girlfriend) and your mom and your daughter," the detective says. "You put on a mask. You walked through the mall with them. You get to the part upstairs where she stays with your daughter and your mom's getting a tea or something and then you walk up and you shoot the guy in the back of the head. That's why you're under arrest for murder in the first degree."
The detective asks Ward if he'd like to see the video evidence from security cameras inside the mall.
"You got me doing something? That's a lie," Ward says.
The detective walks out of the room and walks back in 30 seconds later with a laptop. He opens it up and then opens up a file of what appears to be a video from the Vancouver Mall's security cameras.
KGW has not seen this security video beyond two stills of people, later identified in court documents as Ward's family members, released by Vancouver police as they were still looking for the shooting suspect.
"There's your mom, there's you," the detective says pointing at one video. "There's you pulling down the Joker mask. Right there, Joker mask on."
Ward denies that it's him. "There's people that look like me, I got pictures of people that look like me all the time."
"And your mom and your girlfriend and your daughter?" the other detective, identified earlier as Deanna, asks.
Dustin, the other detective, tells Ward to give him a motive. "Now would be a probably good time to offer up some sort of reason. Some street reason, something."
Ward again remains silent and doesn't say much.
"Who is that guy?" Deanna asks, looking at one of the videos. It's unclear who "that guy" is referring to.
"Like I said, I got nothing to say," Ward responds.
"No, who is he to you?" Deanna replies.
"I don't know that dude," Ward says.
While this exchange is happening, Dustin continues to look through the video files on his laptop and pulls up another angle.
"Then you walk over here. Then another camera shows you walking the second floor, then it shows you stop right about here and then you see the cat come across here," Dustin tells Ward. "You start walking over to the food court and then you shoot him in the back of the head. It's all on camera."
In another angle, Dustin narrates the video to Ward, "Here comes Mr. Perez. Incidentally, his autistic 5-year-old son ran away from the play area, so he's walking the mall trying to find his autistic son. In the food court he goes."
The detective then asks for a motive again, "If it's a street beef, say it's a street beef. If he wronged you somewhere, great. If he's greenlit, whatever, I don't care what it is. There's gotta be some reason."
The detective then presses Ward more about how he knows the victim, James Perez. He asks him who he is, Ward says no one. The detective then asks, "Do you just shoot anyone that's wearing a white Nationals baseball cap?"
At 7:32 p.m., nearly 17 minutes after he's read his Miranda Rights, Ward tells the detectives the interview is over. "I don't want to talk to nobody but a lawyer. Like I said."
The detective closes up his laptop, gathers his things and says one final thing before walking out of the room. "You're being booked for murder in the first degree and two counts of assault one, other charges are probably pending. Any questions?"
Ward remains in the interview room for another hour. The detectives come back in to gather a DNA sample they said they had a warrant for, showing him the paperwork. Ward then stands up and is led out of the room by an officer before the video ends.