Texas mall shooting: family and friends identify victims as investigation goes on

The victims of a mass shooting have been named as law enforcement officials in Allen, Texas, are still trying to piece together the events of the Saturday afternoon attack at a suburban shopping mall in which a gunman killed eight people and injured seven others, before being killed himself by police.

Brian Harvey, the Allen police chief, declined to answer questions on Sunday evening, saying of the investigation, “we actually don’t have a lot”.

Authorities have yet to provide details about the exact series of events and publicly release the identities of the victims, but families, friends and organizations have released some information. Those killed include an engineer from India, a security guard, a Korean American family and two young children.

Cox elementary school students Daniela and Sofia Mendoza, grades four and two, were among those slain on Saturday at Allen Premium Outlets, according to officials in the Wylie independent school district. They were remembered as “the kindest, most thoughtful students with smiles that could light up any room”, Principal Krista Wilson said in a letter to parents.

Andria Gaither, assistant manger at the mall’s Tommy Hilfiger, said she was devastated to learn that one of the dead was Christian LaCour, a 20-year-old security guard who previously worked at the clothing store and often stopped in to chat.

Just a few nights earlier, she had called LaCour when a customer wanted in after hours. He came and asked the man to leave and then offered a security escort to her and two teenage employees.

“He wanted us to feel safe,” Gaither said.

“I’m just in shock,” she added. “He was very young, very sweet, came in all the time to visit with us.”

Also killed at the outdoor shopping center were three members of a Korean American family: a couple and one of their sons, who was three years old. Another son was wounded and was still hospitalized, said Myoung-Joon Kim, head of mission at the Consulate of the Republic of Korea in Dallas. The parents were identified by the Texas department of public safety as Kyu Song Cho, 37, and Cindy Cho, 35.

Also killed was Aishwarya Thatikonda, 26, who was from India, held a graduate degree in construction management and worked as a civil engineer at a the Dallas-area firm Perfect General Contractors.

She was “always prepared to give her very best”, company founder Srinivas Chaluvadi said via email.

He said her parents live in Hyderabad, India, where her father is a judge.

“She came to the United States with a dream to make a career, build a family, own a home and live forever in Dallas,” Chaluvadi said.

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DPS has identified the eighth victim as Elio Cumana-Rivas, 32.

Medical City Healthcare said on Monday it was treating six patients at three of its hospitals: three were in critical condition, two were in fair condition and one was in good condition at a children’s hospital. Police said a seventh wounded person was taken to a different hospital.

Police have identified the gunman in the shooting as Mauricio Garcia, a 33-year-old whose activity on a Russian social networking site reveals a fascination with white supremacy and mass shootings, which he described as sport. Photos he posted showed large Nazi tattoos on his arm and torso, including a swastika and the SS lightning bolt logo of Hitler’s paramilitary forces.

Garcia had been discharged from the army in 2008 because of mental health issues and apparently was working as a security guard, according to neighbors and an army official. The attack in Allen ended when police shot and killed Garcia.

Amid protests on Monday at the Texas capitol for stricter gun control, two Republicans sided with Democrats to advance a bill that would raise the age to buy semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21, though the measure has little or no chance of actually becoming law.

The shooting was the latest attack to contribute to the unprecedented pace of mass killings this year in the US. Just over a week before, five people were fatally shot in Cleveland, Texas, after a neighbor asked a man to stop firing his weapon while a baby slept, authorities said.