Mall shooter had 8 guns; cop who shot him hailed as hero
ALLEN, Texas — The shooter with neo-Nazi leanings who killed eight people at a suburban Dallas shopping mall brought eight legally purchased guns to the scene, apparently chose his victims randomly and was shot dead by police within four minutes, authorities said Tuesday.
The Allen police officer who shot and killed Mauricio
Garcia, 33, ending Saturday’s attack, acted heroically and saved “countless lives” through his quick action, Hank Sibley, the regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference. Authorities said the officer is processing what happened and isn’t ready to have his name made public.
“If he hadn’t have been there, I think we’d have had a much more severe situation,” Sibley said.
The investigation into
Garcia’s motive is ongoing, but he expressed neo-Nazi beliefs, Sibley said, adding that Garcia had no criminal history before he opened fire at Allen Premium Outlets.
Garcia brought eight guns to the scene, including three that he had on him and five in his vehicle, Sibley said.
Sibley said it seems Garcia “targeted the location, rather than a specific group of people,” adding that “he was very random in the people he killed.”
“The big question that we’re dealing with right now is, ‘What’s his motive? Why did he do this?’” Sibley said. “Well ... we don’t know. That’s what the investigation is trying to find out.”
Posts by Garcia on a Russian social networking site suggest he planned for weeks before he launched the attack in Allen, a diverse community of about 100,000 people roughly 25 miles north of downtown Dallas.
Garcia researched when the mall was busiest — Saturday afternoons — and posted photos on social media in mid-April of a store near where he ultimately began shooting people.
Among those killed were two elementary-school-age sisters, a couple and their 3-year-old son, a woman from India and a 20-yearold security guard who was hailed for his bravery in the shooting.
Sibley said Garcia hadn’t worked in the security business for some time and that his private security license in Texas had expired.