bruce bowser <bruce1.9bowser@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Monday, May 8, 2023 at 9:59:02 PM UTC-5 Herman Adler wrote in political-euwetopia:
>> The shooter, Mauricio Garcia, enlisted briefly in the Army but was
>> ‘terminated’ after three months
>
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/08/texas-mall-shooting/
>
>> ALLEN, Tex. — The gunman who killed eight people at an outlet mall in
>> suburban Dallas posted photographs of the shopping center three weeks
>> before the attack on a social media account where he fantasized about
>> race wars and the collapse of society.
>
>> The social media posts, the last of which went online Saturday shortly
>> before he stormed into the shopping mall, included violent, hateful
>> references that included singling out Asians with slurs. Mauricio
>> Garcia, 33, also used his account on Odnoklassniki, a Russian social
>> media platform, to reference “the noble war,” a phrase that many white
>> supremacists use to describe their belief in an impending race war.
>
>> On Monday, as Texans grieved over the state’s second mass killing in a
>> little more than a week, authorities largely avoided discussing a
>> possible motive for Garcia’s rampage. But details of his background
>> continued to trickle out, including news that he briefly received
>> military training but was discharged from the U.S. Army over a mental
>> health condition after three months of service.
>
>> Heather J. Hagan, an Army spokesperson, said Garcia joined the Army in
>> June 2008 but was “terminated” three months later, failing to complete
>> his initial training.
>
>> Garcia was separated for an unspecified mental health issue, according
>> to another Army official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
>> because of the sensitive nature of personnel records.
>
>> Texas officials have offered few details about what might have prompted
>> Garcia to launch his attack, which lasted until he was confronted by a
>> police officer who shot and killed him. The shooting, the country’s 22nd
>> mass killing so far this year, horrified the diverse, affluent
>> communities that make up the northern suburbs of Dallas. The killings
>> are also reigniting debate over whether Texas gun laws are stringent enough.
>
>> The victims include an engineer from India, a 20-year-old mall security
>> guard, three out of four family members, and two elementary-school-age sisters.
>
>> At the Texas Capitol in Austin, the shooting reverberated in the
>> legislature as a House committee voted to advance a bill raising the
>> minimum age to buy certain types of firearms to 21, up from 18. But the
>> legislation is expected to face an uphill battle on the House floor and
>> in the state Senate.
>
>> In Washington, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated
>> calls for Congress to consider stricter gun laws nationwide.
>
>> “Schools, shopping malls, churches, movie theaters, grocery stores,
>> temples, places that are part of our everyday lives — that are essential
>> to our everyday lives — day after day are coming under attack from
>> weapons of war,” she said.
>
>> Garcia walked up to Allen Premium Outlets in Allen carrying multiple
>> weapons and had five additional guns in a vehicle in the mall’s parking
>> lot, people familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post.
>
>> Authorities said seven people ranging in age from 5 to 61 were also
>> wounded in the attack. Medical City Healthcare, a network of Dallas-area
>> hospitals, said Monday that it was still treating six of those wounded,
>> including three who were in critical condition.
>
>> Authorities have not released a motive for Garcia’s rampage, but they
>> are investigating his suspected links to white supremacists and neo-Nazi
>> beliefs. Garcia arrived at the mall wearing a tactical vest with a patch
>> that read “RWDS,” which stands for Right Wing Death Squad. The phrase is
>> popular with extremist groups including neo-Nazis and white
>> supremacists, and authorities are trying to determine whether Garcia
>> carried out a hate crime.
>
>> On Monday, the Allen Police Department declined to answer additional
>> questions about the investigations, referring calls to the Texas
>> Department of Public Safety. A spokesperson for the Department of Public
>> Safety did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
>
>> Mauricio Garcia’s social media posts before the shooting
>
>> According to his social media posts, Garcia appeared to have staked out
>> the mall using Google to determine the busiest times.
>
>> Garcia’s social media account was first reported by the New York Times
>> and expanded upon in a thread on Twitter by Aric Toler of the
>> open-source investigation group Bellingcat. Toler noted that Garcia used
>> the forum for diary-style entries and might have picked that platform
>> “because it has virtually zero content moderation.”
>
>> The last post on Garcia’s account, dated Saturday, resembled a suicide
>> note and included more than 500 words of violent, hateful fantasies,
>> self-aggrandizement and pop-culture references. Older entries expressed
>> admiration for other mass killers and described a dark worldview that
>> included apocalyptic “accelerationist” ideology, which is associated
>> with calls for a violent collapse of society.
>
>> Other posts on the account showed off tattoos, including a swastika and
>> other Nazi symbols.
>
>> Although Army officials declined to specify why Garcia had been
>> discharged, administrative separations like the one he received are
>> meant to quickly force out recruits who can’t perform military duties as
>> a result of various physical or behavioral conditions. They are not
>> typically punishments and would not show up on background checks.
>> Recruits who leave the service before they finish training don’t receive
>> military or veterans benefits.
>
>> Victims in the Allen, Texas, mall shooting released
>
>> Authorities released the names of the adults killed but only the ages of
>> the children who died. Some of their identities have been confirmed by
>> family members, friends and others.
>
>> They include three members of the Cho family of Dallas: Kyu Song Cho,
>> Cindy Cho and their 3-year-old son. A GoFundMe page said their
>> 3-year-old was named James, while their 6-year-old son, William, was
>> injured but was out of intensive care.
>
>> Elementary students Daniela and Sofia Mendoza were at the mall with
>> their mom, Wylie Independent School District officials said. The girls
>> were fatally shot; their mother, Ilda, remained in critical condition Monday.
>
>> Daniela, a fourth-grader, and Sofia, a second-grader, were “rays of
>> sunshine,” Cox Elementary School principal Krista Wilson said in a
>> message to parents. She called them “the kindest, most thoughtful students.”
>
>> Aishwarya Thatikonda, the engineer, who lived in McKinney, Tex., was
>> days from her 27th birthday, her boss said. She had come to the United
>> States from India about five years ago in pursuit of opportunities in
>> engineering, said Ashok Kolla, a volunteer for the Indian American
>> nonprofit Telugu Association of North America who was representing the family.
>
>> Thousands of miles away in India, her parents grew concerned when they
>> couldn’t reach her Saturday. Kolla drove from hospital to hospital over
>> the weekend, then to the shooting scene, then finally to the medical
>> examiner’s office, where, after seven hours of waiting, he learned that
>> Thatikonda was among the dead.
>
>> “All of us had hoped she was somewhere in the hospital,” Kolla said. On
>> Monday, he was sorting through the logistics of having her remains sent
>> home to India, trying to help her devastated parents and brother. He
>> said the killing had sent shock waves through the Indian community,
>> which has had little experience with the mass shootings that haunt America.
>
>> “This girl had a long way to go, being a brilliant and well-educated
>> kid,” Kolla said. “She had a long way to go.”
>
>> Christian LaCour, the security guard, “was tragically killed while
>> protecting the customers and employees of the Allen Premium Outlets,”
>> his employer, Allied Universal, said in a statement. A relative
>> described the 20-year-old as “more amazing than anyone would ever truly
>> know,” declining to comment further. Also killed was Elio Cumana-Rivas
>> of Dallas, who was 32, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
>
>> Texas lawmakers advance bill to raise age to buy certain firearms
>
>> The Allen shooting occurred a little more than a week after a gunman,
>> armed with an AR-15-style weapon, shot and killed five of his neighbors
>> in Cleveland, Tex. The family had asked the man, who was arrested after
>> an extensive manhunt, to stop firing his weapon so they could sleep.
>
>> The back-to-back mass killings — taking place about a year after 19
>> students and two teachers were shot to death in a school in Uvalde, Tex.
>> — have increased the pressure on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and GOP
>> lawmakers to address gun violence. But with Texas’s biannual legislative
>> session scheduled to conclude in late May, supporters of tougher rules
>> face a steep hurdle to persuade the Republican-controlled legislature to take action.
>
>> The committee vote Monday occurred after relatives of the Uvalde victims
>> packed into the state House and urged lawmakers to raise the minimum age
>> to buy certain types of firearms to 21, up from 18.
>
>> After the vote to send the measure to the House floor, some relatives
>> cheered while others sobbed.
>
>> State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat who represents the Uvalde area,
>> celebrated with the Uvalde family members at lunch after the bill made
>> it out of committee. Gutierrez said the committee vote, which included
>> support from two Republicans, was the most significant progress on gun
>> legislation that he’s seen in his 16 years in Austin.
>
>> But he said he and other Democratic lawmakers are tempering their
>> optimism, knowing that the legislation still faces an uphill slog on the
>> House floor and in the Senate.
>
>> “Hope springs eternal,” Gutierrez said. “As I told the families, there
>> never has been a bill in my time that has been a pro-gun-safety bill
>> that has even had a hearing in committee. This happened because of these
>> families’ efforts.”
>
>> "Donald Trump's latest reported musings on the death penalty, including
>> firing squads and public executions, are clearly deranged."
>
> ----------------------------------------
> Trump’s deranged death penalty musings could run into a problem: The law
> MSNBC - Feb 16, 2023
> --
> https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/trump-public-executions-firing-squads-rcna70751
>