Texas mall shooting suspect identified as 33-year-old man

The attacker who killed eight people at a Texas shopping center was identified by authorities on Sunday as a 33-year-old man who was staying at a nearby motel.

Three law enforcement officials who spoke to the Associated Press named the gunman as Mauricio Garcia, who was fatally shot by a police officer who happened to be near a suburban Dallas mall. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of an ongoing investigation.

One of the officials said Garcia was staying at a motel nearby. The official said investigators searched the motel and a Dallas-area home associated with the suspect.

The official said police also found weapons at the scene after Garcia was shot dead by a police officer. The weapons included an AR-15-style rifle and a pistol, according to the official.

The gunman’s name emerged as the Allen community mourned the dead and awaited news of the seven wounded.

John Mark Caton, senior pastor at Cottonwood Creek Church, about two miles from the mall, prayed during his weekly worship for victims, first responders, shoppers and staff, who “left out things they should never have seen.”

Caton said: “Some of our people have been there. Some are probably in this room. Some of our students are working in those stores and will be forever changed by this. “.

Recalling a phone conversation with police officers, he said: “There wasn’t an officer I spoke to yesterday that at some point during the callback didn’t cry.”

The church has scheduled an evening vigil after the shooting, which is the latest attack to contribute to unprecedented rate of mass murder this year. Almost a week ago, five people used to shot dead in Cleveland, Texasafter a neighbor asked a man to stop firing his weapon while a baby was sleeping, authorities said.

Police did not immediately provide details about the victims at Allen Premium Outlets, a large outdoor shopping mall, but eyewitnesses reported seeing children among them. Some people said they also saw police and shopping mall security guards unconscious on the ground.

Maxwell Gum, a 16-year-old pretzel worker, described the situation of shoppers jostling virtual. He and the others took shelter in a storage room.

“We started running. Children were trampled,” Gum said. “My colleague picked up a 4-year-old girl and handed it over to her parents.”

Dashcam video circulating online shows the gunman getting out of a car and shooting people on the sidewalk. More than three dozen shots could be heard as the video vehicle sped away.

Fire Chief Allen Jonathan Boyd said seven people, including the shooter, died at the scene. Two others died at the hospital.

Seven people remained hospitalized as of Sunday – three in critical condition and four in normal condition, the Allen Police Department said in a statement.

An Allen police officer was in the area on an unrelated call when he heard gunshots at 3:36 p.m., the department wrote on Facebook.

“Police engaged the suspect and neutralized the threat. He then called emergency personnel,” the post said.

Serial murders have occurred with astonishing frequency in the United States this year, with an average of about one per week, according to one report. database maintained by the Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

In a statement, President Biden said the attacker was wearing tactical gear and fired an AR-15-style weapon. He called on Congress to enact tighter restrictions on guns and ammunition.

“Such an attack is too shocking to be familiar. And yet, American communities have suffered about 200 mass shootings this year, according to top statisticians,” Biden said. who gave the order to lower the flag at half-mast.

Republicans in Congress “cannot continue to shrug their shoulders in the face of this epidemic,” he said.

Governor of the Republic of Texas Greg Abbott, who signed the law easing gun restrictions after past mass shootingscalled the mall attack an “indescribable tragedy.”

Videos shared on social media showed people running through a parking lot amid gunfire.

Fontayne Payton, 35, was at H&M when he heard gunfire through his headphones.

“It’s so loud, it looks like it’s right outside,” Payton said.

He said everyone in the store scattered before staff led the group into a fitting room and then a locked room in the back. When they were allowed to leave, Payton saw the store with a broken window and a streak of blood out the door. Discarded slippers and bloodied clothes lay nearby.

While outside, Payton saw the bodies.

“I pray that it’s not children, but it looks like children,” he said. The bodies were covered in white towels, lying in bags on the ground. “I broke mine when I walked out to see that.”

Further on, he saw the body of a large man dressed in all black. He assumed it was the shooter, Payton said, because unlike the other bodies, this one was uncovered.

Tarakram Nunna, 25, and Ramakrishna Mullapudi, 26, said they saw three seemingly motionless people on the ground, one of which appeared to be a police officer and another that looked like a mall security guard. .

Another shopper, Sharkie Mouli, 24, said he hid in Banana Republic. As he left, he saw a police-looking person lying unconscious next to another unconscious person outside the store.

“I saw his gun lying right next to him and a man who looked like he passed out right next to him,” Mouli said.

Stan and Mary Ann Greene were browsing through a sportswear store in Columbia when the scene began.

Mary Ann Greene told the Associated Press: “We had just walked in, just a few minutes before, and we heard a lot of loud bangs.

Employees rolled down the security gate and ushered people to the back of the store until police arrived and escorted them out, Greenes said.

Eber Romero was at the Under Armor store when a cashier said there was a shooting.

When he left, the mall was empty and all the stores were closed to security, Romero said. That’s when he started seeing shards of broken glass and victims of the shooting on the floor of the mall.

Allen, a city of 105,000 residents, is about 25 miles (40 km) north of downtown Dallas.