It has been revealed that the shooter who killed 8 people by shooting at a shopping mall outside of Dallas, Texas was obsessed with neo-Nazi ideology. Nevertheless, they attacked indiscriminately regardless of race, age, or gender.
According to Reuters, the Texas Department of Public Safety held a press conference on the 9th (local time) and released additional personal information about the shooting suspect, Mauricio Garcia (33). Public Safety Commissioner Hank Sibley said based on his clothes and tattoos, “It can be seen that he was obsessed with neo-Nazi ideas.”
Next, Director Sibley said, “It seems that the suspect targeted a specific place rather than a specific group,” adding, “Age, race, and gender were not important. He randomly selected people to kill,” he added.
He added that it was too early to define the shooting as an act of terrorism. The motive for the crime was also not clear, and it was believed that the suspect committed the crime alone. Nor did he elaborate on how sympathetic the suspect was to neo-Nazism.
Garcia is accused of killing a total of nine people, including three children, using an AR-15 assault rifle at Allen Premium Outlets, about 40 km northeast of Dallas, at 3:36 pm on the 6th. Authorities have not officially announced the identity of the deceased, but it is known that three members of the Korean family also lost their lives. Garcia was shot dead during a skirmish with police arriving at the scene.
The American media reported that Garcia wore the insignia of the ‘Right Wing Death Squad’ (RWDS), which means white supremacist followers, and posted hundreds of extreme posts on his social network service (SNS). Reported.
The New York Times (NYT) quoted an official from the authorities on the 8th and said, “On the day of the incident, the shooter was wearing an RWDS badge. There are several of them,” he said.
In addition, in an SNS post written by Garcia, “he hinted several times that he was Hispanic and once revealed that he was from Mexico, but he posted the content that ‘whites and Hispanics have a lot in common’.”
At the press conference that day, it was also confirmed that Garcia enlisted in the military, but was discharged after being judged ‘unsuitable for service’, and that he worked as a security guard at a private security company.
Garcia entered the U.S. Army Training Center in 2008, but was judged ineligible for military service and was discharged before completing basic military training. He has no criminal record. He obtained his Texas state security license in 2016 and worked as a security guard at at least three security companies before it expired in 2020.
Three guns Garcia was carrying at the time of the crime and five additional guns found in the vehicle were recovered by Texas authorities. Garcia legally owned all eight guns, Sibley said.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.