Allen Premium Outlets shooter apparently made racist, Nazi posts on Russian social media
The man police say killed eight people and wounded seven others in a mass shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets mall on Saturday is believed to have posted neo-Nazi content on a Russian social media site and other profiles, according to law enforcement sources, researchers and screenshots shared in media reports.
The profile on Odnoklassniki, a social media network that’s popular in Russia, includes a date of birth that matches that of 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia and, according to media reports, includes posts like one about the motel he was staying in before the shooting.
The profile picture on the account is one of a smiling emoji styled to look like Hitler. An account must be created to view posts and other information on the profile.
According to media reports and screenshots shared on other social media platforms like Twitter, Garcia made hate-filled posts about women, Jews and Black people and shared a picture of two tattoos he had, one of a swastika on the left side of his chest and one of the Nazi SS on his right upper arm. With the photos, he included the caption, “Here’s what I think about your diversity you (expletive) loser’s (sic).”
On April 16, photos of the Allen Premium Outlets were posted to the profile, according to screenshots. Other photos included one of a tactical vest with a “RWDS” patch on it, an acronym used by some hate groups to mean “Right Wing Death Squad,” along with a Texas flag with the “Punisher” skull and a black patch with the same insignia.
Authorities previously told the Associated Press that they’d located white supremacist and Nazi posts on social media profiles believed to belong to Garcia.
The Odnoklassniki profile was littered with racist, antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ and anti-women posts, according to an analysis by researchers with the Anti-Defamation League.. In some he wrote about “lib commie” teachers and ended a post in which he expressed conspiracy theories about Jewish people controlling media by saying, “Heil Hitler.”
According to the profile page, it was last logged into on Saturday, the day of the shooting.
Garcia shot and killed eight people, including a Korean-American mother, father and their 3-year-old son, and wounded seven others before he was killed by a police officer who was already at the mall responding to a different call, according to authorities. Dashcam video showed Garcia get out of a vehicle in the parking lot with a AR-15 variant long rifle and immediately open fire at shoppers.
On Monday, the Texas House Committee on Community Safety gave the go-ahead for a bill that would raise the minimum age to buy a semi-automatic rifle in Texas to 21, with the support of two Republicans.
Army officials confirmed Garcia was enlisted in the military for a short time before he was discharged for mental health concerns. A license in a Texas government database shows that Garcia worked as a security guard for three different companies and was certified as firearms proficient.
