Texas mall shooting: Victims identified as investigation goes on

Nine people were killed during the Texas mall shooting in Allen, Texas on May 6 and investigations continue as police try to figure out what happened.

The gunman was also killed in the shooting with seven other people injured at the mall.

Allen police chief Brian Harvey said, “we actually don’t have a lot”. Those killed include an engineer from India, a security guard, a Korean American family and two young children.

Texas Shooting Spree

The children were from Cox elementary school and were in grades two and four. The security guard was a 20-year-old who had previously worked at the mall’s Tommy Hilfiger outlet.

The Korean family who died were a couple and their three-year-old son. One of the children was wounded and survived. The other victim was Aishwarya Thatikonda, 26, who worked as a civil engineer in Dallas.

The child who survived is William Cho who is just 6 years old. A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise money to support him and his extended family. To date some $450,000 has been raised.

Six of the patients are in Medical City Healthcare, three are in critical condition and two are stable while one is doing well at a children’s hospital.

The gunman responsible was Mauricio Garcia, 33 who was killed by the police during the shootout at the mall. Apparently Garcia had mental health issues after being discharged from the army in 2008 and had briefly worked as a security guard. He had a fascination for the concept of white supremacy and mass shootings and sported large Nazi tattoos on his arm and torso, including a swastika and the SS lightning bolt sign which was part of Hitler’s paramilitary forces during World War II.

Gun Control

Protestors continue to agitate for more gun control to prevent incidents like this. US President Joe Biden ordered flags at the White House to fly at half mast in honour of the victims in what he said is “the latest act of gun violence to devastate our nation.”

The mall shooting occurred just one week after a man shot five people in Cleveland, Texas just because a neighbour had asked him to stop firing his weapon while a baby slept.

The photo above is from a YouTube screen grab