From the time the phone went dead until the call arrived from her daughter's roommate a few hours later, the clocked ticked at an agonizingly slow pace for Pearl City's Frances Jackson.

"I kept throwing up and throwing up," Jackson said.

"I called back and nobody answered. I imagined her lying down, shot. I prayed, 'Please don't let anything happen to my daughter.' "

Jackson's worries were well-warranted. Her daughter, 40-year-old Ruth Jackson, was one of seven people injured Sunday when a man opened fire with assault weapons at a mall in Tacoma, Wash.

Dominick Sergio Maldonado, 20, of Tacoma, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of first-degree assault, kidnapping and unlawful firearm possession. He was ordered held on $2 million bail.

Ruth Jackson grew up on O'ahu but now lives in Graham, Wash. Though her name was not among the victims listed in court documents, Mark Fulgham, a spokesman for Tacoma police, confirmed yesterday that Jackson was injured in the shooting.

Ruth Jackson didn't return phone calls from The Advertiser over the past two days, but her mother said her daughter was going to give a statement to police yesterday.

On Sunday, Frances Jackson said, she and her daughter were on the phone while her daughter was at the Tacoma Mall. As they spoke, a loud crash that sounded like two trucks colliding ended the conversation.

"She said, 'There's a shooting! There's a shooting! I have to hang up!' " said Jackson, 68.

"Then the phone went dead."

After opening fire, the gunman ducked into a music store, where he took four people hostage.

The gunman surrendered four hours later.

Frances Jackson said it was hours before she heard from her daughter after she had lost phone contact. Eventually, her daughter's roommate called from the emergency room to let her know that the wounds were not life-threatening.

Still, the wait between calls was difficult. Jackson said she imagined the worst and prayed for the best.

Jackson said that when she finally spoke with her daughter, she was told that a clean-cut man in a white shirt and tie "just started firing," everyone began running, and stores began to close their gates. Her daughter also told her that she ran toward a store looking for refuge.

Her daughter "said she saw things on her leg but in the excitement didn't think, but it felt like a sting," Jackson said.

When paramedics arrived on the scene, they were forced to cut off Ruth Jackson's clothing and shoes to gain access to her wounds, her mother said.

"She said, 'Oh, Mom, they cut my pants and they cut my $55 shoes,' " Frances Jackson said.

"I said, 'But you're alive.' "

Ruth Jackson told her mother that she received three wounds — two on her right leg and a fragment that the emergency room doctor found below her navel. The doctor told her that the fragment couldn't be removed, her mother said.

Ruth Jackson attended McKinley High School but did not graduate, earning a GED instead, her mother said.

She moved to the Mainland about 12 years ago.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.