Authorities said the gunman responsible for killing eight people at an Allen, Tex., mall legally obtained the weapons he used and had neo-Nazi beliefs, but they don’t believe he targeted a specific group of people. Hank Sibley, North Texas regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said it appeared that Mauricio Garcia targeted the Allen Premium Outlets as a location and not anyone specifically, reports the Wall Street Journal. Among the dead were women, men and children, some of them of Asian descent. Seven people were wounded. “He was very random, and the people he killed, it didn’t matter the age, same [with] race or sex, he just shot people, which is horrific in itself,” said Sibley. The shooting lasted only about three minutes. Brian Harvey, Allen police chief, commended but declined to name his police officer who was at the mall on another call when the shooting started and fatally shot Garcia.
Officials said the death and injury toll would have been much higher had it not been for the officer. Harvey also noted the actions of Christian LeCour, 23, a security guard who led a person to safety and then was fatally shot while remaining to help others. In addition to LeCour, seven other people were killed in Saturday’s shooting. Cindy Cho and Kyu Song Cho and one of their sons, James, 3, were among the victims. Their other son, William, who had turned 6, was the only one who survived the shooting, according to a GoFundMe created for him. Two girls aged 8 and 11 from Sachse, Tex., Aishwarya Thatikonda, 26, of McKinney, Tex., and Elio Cumana-Rivas, 32, of Dallas, also were killed. In 2008, Garcia joined the Army and was terminated before he could finish basic training. Garcia had eight weapons with him when he arrived at the sprawling outdoor mall, three on his person and five in his car. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that all of the weapons were obtained legally.