Investigators trying to learn why a gunman fatally shot at least eight people at a Texas mall are examining a social media profile, rife with hate-filled rants against women and black people, that they believe belonged to the gunman.
The profile, found on the social media site OK.RU, matches the gunman’s birthday and refers to a motel where he was staying before the shooting. The profile also includes language praising Hitler, with references to neo-Nazi websites.
On Sunday, officials identified the gunman, who was killed at the mall by a police officer, as Mauricio Garcia (33). The motive for the attack remains unclear.
Police say he opened fire on Saturday afternoon at Allen Premium Outlets, a busy outdoor mall about 25 miles north of Dallas with more than 120 stores. Nine people were pronounced dead, including the gunman, and at least seven others were injured.
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Investigators want to know more about the gunman’s motive, in part to determine whether the attack may have been connected to any wider threat to public safety that may persist even though the gunman is dead.
Two law enforcement officials said Garcia appeared to espouse white supremacist ideology, though it was not yet determined whether the shooting was an act of domestic terrorism.
During the shooting on Saturday, the gunman was wearing a patch that said “RWDS”, an abbreviation known to stand for “Right Wing Death Squad”, according to one official.
The phrase harks back to Gen Augusto Pinochet’s violent right-wing regime in Chile in the 1970s and 1980s. The Pinochet government was notorious for assembling death squads that murdered their leftist enemies.
More recently, neo-Nazi groups in the United States and members of other far-right organisations such as the Proud Boys have claimed the phrase, and often wear the abbreviation on clothing or patches. The Proud Boys in particular often combine RWDS labels with shirts reading, “Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong.”
The online profile being investigated also includes several pictures showing a black tactical vest with an RWDS patch. In addition, the profile includes a screenshot from Google Maps showing the time at which the mall where the shooting took place was likely to be busiest.
Though the writer of the posts suggests several times that they are of Hispanic origin – at one point indicating they are originally from Mexico – there is also a clear embrace of white supremacy. As recently as last month, the account contained a post saying that “white people and Hispanics have a lot in common”.
The identities of the victims have not yet been released, another factor that so far renders the motive for the shootings murky. One key fact weighed even more heavily on the suburban community outside Dallas where the murders occurred: there were children among the victims.
Although the police would not indicate how many children had died, officials including President Joe Biden acknowledged there were more than one.
The ages of the seven people injured in the shooting ranged from five to 61, according to a spokesperson for Medical City Healthcare, the hospital system treating some of the patients. As of Sunday afternoon, one patient had been transferred to a children’s hospital and was in fair condition. Three patients – their exact ages not yet released – remained in critical condition, while the others were in fair condition, according to Oscar Villarreal, a lieutenant in the state’s Department of Public Safety. – This article first appeared in the New York Times