(Trends Wide) — The United States once again falls into mourning for another mass shooting, this time at a mall in Allen, Texas, after a gunman — who allegedly posted his support for Nazi ideology online — fatally shot eight people, wounding at least seven others.
Authorities identified Mauricio Garcia, 33, as the shooter in Saturday’s shooting in Allen, a suburb 25 miles north of Dallas.
A witness’s car camera captured the moment Garcia gets out of his car and immediately begins shooting, ambushing unsuspecting employees, shoppers and families with young children.
Garcia was shot dead at the scene by an Allen police officer who was taking a call nearby when the shooting began.
Authorities have not revealed a possible motive.
Here’s what we know about the messages he allegedly shared.
Online Posts Reveal Nazi Obsession, Guns, Mass Shootings
In the weeks leading up to the massacre, the alleged shooter appears to have written approvingly about Nazi ideology, shared images of his numerous firearms and posted a photo of the mall on social media.
A user of the Russian social network Odnoklassniki posted photos of several receipts and a plane ticket with Mauricio García’s name, and also indicated a date of birth that coincided with García’s. A police source stated that investigators believe the account belonged to Garcia.
The account also posted a Google Maps screenshot a few weeks before the shooting showing the times of day when the mall in Allen, Texas, was busiest.
In a nonsensical post on the day of the shooting, the last on the account, Garcia quoted from “South Park” and other movies and TV shows, alluding to his struggles with undisclosed personal issues.
“Even if I went to a psychologist,” he wrote, “they won’t be able to fix what’s wrong with me. Besides, that shit is expensive.”
Photos were also posted showing the shirtless torso of a man with a large swastika tattooed over his heart. It is not clear if the man in the photo is Garcia.
The newspaper The New York Times was the first to report the existence of the account, which was later identified by a researcher at the open-source intelligence website Bellingcat.
The Odnoklassniki account, which goes by the username “PsycoVision 5,” had no friends or groups, suggesting Garcia may have used it as a personal diary, he said in a Tweet Aric Toler, the Bellingcat investigator who identified her. However, her posts are publicly visible to anyone who has an account on the social network, also known as OK.RU.
Garcia identified himself in some of his posts as an “incel,” a term the Anti-Defamation League defines as “straight men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic success.”
Some messages were sexist and expressed anger against women.
Another post expressed anger at family members who “mocked any attempt I made to be masculine…” and “told me I was disturbed…”. Still another described people making uncomfortable jokes or comments about the perpetrator being likely to commit a mass shooting.
Other photos posted to the account include various firearms, some of which the user wrote he acquired in recent months. There are also photos of a bulletproof vest with an RWDS patch, short for Right-Wing Death Squad, which a senior police source familiar with the investigation said Garcia was wearing during the shooting.
An April 24 message praised the perpetrator of the Nashville school massacre, which killed six people, including three minors, the previous month, referring to the number of people killed.
Other messages advocated anti-Semitism and echoed “replacement theory,” the false idea that people are conspiring to make the American population less white. Some racially motivated attackers said they were inspired by the theory.
Possible links to radical groups
Details about the attacker’s background have begun to emerge and investigators are considering the possibility that he was driven by right-wing extremism, a senior law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told Trends Wide.
Garcia was wearing a badge that authorities say could be associated with radical groups.
Investigators discovered an extensive social media presence, including neo-Nazi and white supremacist-related messages and images that authorities believe Garcia shared online, according to the source.
A photo obtained by Trends Wide shows Garcia, dressed in black and tactical gear, lying on the ground after being shot outside a Fatburger & Buffalo’s Express restaurant in the Allen Premium Outlets. In addition to an AR-15-style firearm and another weapon found with Garcia, police discovered several other weapons in his vehicle, the police source told Trends Wide.
Neighbors at an address that matches Garcia’s parents told Trends Wide that police and the FBI arrived at the home about an hour after the attack and blocked the street for several hours.
Two neighbors said they were shocked and disturbed to learn that Garcia was the shooter.
“I know nothing happened on our block, but it gives you the chills to know that the suspect lived a few houses away,” said neighbor Moisés Carreón, who also commented that García never showed signs of being someone who could be suspected of a mass shooting.
Garcia had been living in some type of transitional housing, according to the police source. The Dallas Morning News reported that Garcia had been staying at a Dallas long-stay hotel.
García was removed from the Army after three months
Garcia graduated from Bryan Adams High School in east Dallas in 2008, the East Dallas Independent School District said.
He entered the Army in June of that year, but was not assigned a specific job, which is called a military occupational specialty, Army spokeswoman Heather Hagan told Trends Wide. He was removed from the institution after three months and did not complete basic training, according to Hagan.
Garcia was recalled from the Army due to concerns about his mental health, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told Trends Wide.
In the same line, a member of the Army said that García was retired due to designated physical or mental health conditions.
Under Army regulations at the time Garcia’s departure occurred, a commander may approve the removal of a service member for physical or mental health conditions that interfere with an assignment or performance of duty.
In his short time in the Army, he had no deployments or awards, Hagan said.
The alleged shooter worked for at least three security companies and received hours of firearms proficiency training in recent years, according to a database maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Garcia was authorized to work as a security guard in Texas from April 2016 until April 2020, when his license expired, according to his profile on the Texas Online Private Security database.
As part of his job, Garcia received Level II and Level III security training. The first covers safety laws in Texas; the latter, which is required for all commissioned security officers and personal protection officers in Texas, includes firearms training and demonstration of firearms proficiency, according to Jonah Nathan, vice president of the Ranger Guard, a ranger service. security guard in Texas who is not affiliated with Garcia’s employers.
Garcia worked as a security guard in 2015 for the Dallas-based Ruiz Protective Service, but company director Hector Ruiz told Trends Wide Garcia resigned after a few months. Ruiz added that he did not recall any interaction with Garcia and said it is not unusual for security guards to work on short notice or change companies.
“I don’t think there’s anything extraordinary about this guy,” he said. “As a new employee, he probably worked at multiple sites. Usually they just start by covering positions where people are absent.”
Oren Liebermann, Natasha Bertrand, Yahya Abou-Ghazala, Bob Ortega, Ed Lavandera, Elizabeth Wolfe and Sara Smart, all for Trends Wide, contributed to this report.
