Investigations by US federal authorities are underway to identify whether Allen mall shooter Mauricio Garcia — who gunned down eight people including children — had any far-right links, reported BBC Monday.
The 33-year-old suspect went into Allen shopping mall and started killing people with AR-15-style rifle, wearing combat gear.
According to the CBS, the investigation is currently underway into Mauricio Garcia’s social media accounts to determine his ideological affiliations.
During the killing spree, the Allen Mall shooter wore a clothing patch with the letter RWDS written on it. It stands for “Right Wing Death Squad”.
This phrase is very popular among white supremacists and right-wing extremists.
A law enforcement official told CBS that one line of enquiry is whether he was motivated by these ideals and whether he had links to like-minded people.
Mauricio Garcia was killed by a police officer Saturday who happened to be at Allen Premium Outlets, about 25 miles north of Dallas, according to the Allen police.
US President Joe Biden said: “The gunman, who lived in Dallas, was armed with an AR-15 style assault weapon.”
NBC quoted a source saying: “More weapons and ammunition were found in his car. He was wearing a patch on his chest with a right-wing acronym at the time of the massacre.”
This is the second shooting in Texas within a week in which five people had died.
It is the 201st mass shooting this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Joe Biden calls on to end gun violence
President Joe Biden described the Texas mall shooting as “the latest act of gun violence to devastate our nation”.
Biden also underlined that there were also children among the dead people saying that “too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables”.
Biden called on his political rivals once again to back his gun control reform efforts
Gregg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, said Sunday his aim was to target the possession of weapons by criminals and deal with a rising mental health crisis, rather than consider wider bans.
Mauricio Garcia was reportedly working as a security guard at the time of the shooting and did not have a serious criminal record.
