Prosecutor: Weapon Used In Garden State Plaza Gunfire Was Confiscated, Returned

Police seized the weapon used in Monday’s gunfire at the Garden State Plaza earlier this year after an alleged fight between the shooter and his brother, authorities said Tuesday.

The rifle, registered to the gunman’s brother Kevin Shoop, might not have been properly locked up when Richard Shoop, 20, took the gun from his family house in Teaneck and opened fire at the mall, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said Tuesday night. No mall patrons were hurt and authorities have said the gunman went to the mall to kill himself.

The two brothers fought over the gun in a confrontation Jan. 1, Molinelli said. Kevin Shoop reportedly hit his brother Richard during the dispute and was charged with simple assault.

Charges against Kevin Shoop were later dismissed in Teaneck Municipal Court, but the weapon was seized, according to Molinelli. Richard Shoop denied any domestic violence between the brothers.

In September, a judge issued an order returning the gun to Kevin Shoop, the prosecutor said.

After using the gun to fire at least six rounds in the mall around 9:30 p.m. Monday, Richard Shoop fatally shot himself, authorities have said. An FBI SWAT team found his body about six hours later in a closed portion of the massive Paramus mall.

Friends in Teaneck have said Shoop was increasingly withdrawn and expressed worries that he was being watched by police or about to be arrested. The prosecutor would not comment on those claims.

Molinelli said Shoop was known to use drugs and has been arrested for drug possession in Hackensack.

As many in Teaneck struggled to understand how the apparently well-liked pizza shop worker could have ended his own life, investigators were working to piece together how Shoop moved through the mall.