The gunman who killed eight people at a Texas outlet mall appears to have been targeting the location rather than specific people, although he harbored “neo-Nazi ideation,” authorities said Tuesday.
Garcia, 33, legally obtained the eight weapons he brought to Allen Premium Outlets — three on his body and five in his car, Sibley said.
Before the attack with an AR-15-style rifle, the gunman fantasized about race wars on social media and shared photos of the mall in the Dallas suburb. He spewed violent references, including ones that disparaged Asians, and referenced “the noble war” — a phrase used by white supremacists to describe their belief that a race war is coming. The gunman previously trained to join the U.S. Army but was discharged after three months of service over an unspecified mental health condition, military officials said.
Since the shooting, Texas officials have mostly declined to engage in depth on questions about whether or how a similar mass killing could be prevented in the future. Department of Public Safety officials ended Tuesday’s news conference as reporters asked about gun laws, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) office cut off a live stream of his unrelated news conference Monday when someone asked about the shooting. A group of state legislators on Monday pushed forward a measure to increase the legal age to purchase some guns, but the bill is expected to face an uphill battle.
On Tuesday, a reporter asked Sibley how similar mass killings could be prevented, given that Garcia obtained weapons legally after being discharged from the Army over a mental health condition. Sibley responded that it was “a very difficult question,” and a reporter countered that it was “the one everybody’s asking.”
“Even if he couldn’t have purchased these firearms legally, he probably could have obtained them illegally or used some other vehicle — literally, a vehicle — to perpetrate something similar,” Sibley replied.
Moments later, officials ended the news conference.
Investigators were still probing the shooter’s white supremacist ideology, which Sibley said was shown by patches and tattoos on his body, among other clues. Investigators are conducting digital forensics on Garcia’s laptop after executing search warrants on his parents’ home and the Dallas hotel room where he had been staying before the shooting.
Garcia had an expired private security license in Texas but was not working as a security guard at the time of the shooting, Sibley added.
The victims ranged in age from 3 to 37 and included three family members, a pair of sisters, a security guard and an engineer. The security guard, Christian LaCour, helped someone to safety during the shooting and was shot while trying to help another person, Sibley said.
One of the injured, Irvin Walker II, is expected to survive after being shot twice in the chest and once in the shoulder when the gunman fired into his car, Walker’s friends wrote on a GoFundMe page.
“With that being said, Irvin has a long road to recovery and is expected to have surgery to remove the bullets and its fragments from his body,” they wrote.
At least one person remained in critical condition Tuesday, according to Medical City Healthcare. Officials said they had turned the mall back over to the property’s management, which will determine whether the facility will reopen.