A Texas gunman who killed eight people at a Dallas-area shopping mall had “neo-Nazi ideation”, police have said.
But the gunman, identified as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, appeared to have singled out his victims randomly and without regard for race, age or sex when he opened fire with an AR-15 style rifle on Saturday.
He was also wearing a tactical vest and was equipped with a handgun during the shooting, police said.
The mass shooting at the crowded Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, Texas, ended after several minutes when police shot dead the suspect.
Garcia, who lived in Dallas, was initially believed to have interacted with neo-Nazi and white supremacist content online, as well as posting such content, according to two senior police sources who spoke to Sky News’s US partner, NBC News.
On Tuesday, authorities determined from a review of the gunman’s social media profile, clothing patches and tattoos that he “had neo-Nazi ideation”.
In a news conference, Hank Sibley, a regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said it was too soon in the investigation to say whether the shooting could be considered an act of domestic terrorism.
Mr Sibley also revealed that Garcia had once served in the US military, and that he suffered from an unspecified mental illness.
The gunman is also said to have worked in the private secretary business some time ago.
The eight people killed in the attack included three children – two young sisters as well as a three-year-old boy from a different family whose parents were also among the dead.
Ten other people, ages five to 51, were wounded.
Investigators recovered eight firearms, including the murder weapon, from Garcia’s possession and his vehicle, with Mr Sibley saying that all of the weapons had been legally purchased.
“The big question we’re dealing with now is: what’s his motive? Why did he do this? We don’t know,” he said.
Officers said on Sunday that an initial review of Garcia’s supposed social media accounts revealed hundreds of posts about ethnicity and race, including what is being described as violent extremist rhetoric.
Authorities also found a clothing patch with a far-right acronym on his chest.
The patch included the letters RWDS, believed to stand for Right Wing Death Squad, according to CBS, who cited two senior police sources.
Right Wing Death Squad are said to be a neo-Nazi group.
Police and the Texas Rangers, working with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were investigating whether the shooting was racially or ethnically motivated, officials said.
Detectives are also said to have interviewed Garcia’s relatives and friends about his ideological beliefs.
According to reports, Garcia lived with his parents in an area of northeast Dallas.
He is also reported to have worked as a security guard.
Read more:
Three children among eight killed in Texas mall shooting – as one boy left orphaned
Two victims of Texas mall shooting named as Christian LaCour and Aishwarya Thatikonda
Texas mall gunman Mauricio Garcia may have been neo-Nazi sympathiser, police say
A neighbour, who asked to be identified only as Julie, told NBC she would see Garcia going to and coming home from work every day like clockwork.
“He tried to acknowledge us but seemed a little off,” Julie said. “He wasn’t somebody you could carry a conversation with.”
She said she was stunned when she learned the suspect’s identity.
“You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out,” she said.
Another neighbour, Gilda Bailey, said three police squad cars were parked outside his house when she got home.
She said officers were not letting the suspect’s relatives inside the residence and that she later saw the FBI removing items from Garcia’s home.
Saturday’s shooting is the second deadliest mass shooting in the US this year and the second in Texas in a little over a week.
Following the shooting, President Joe Biden renewed calls for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as to enact universal background checks and end immunity for gun manufacturers.