Allen’s gunman was fired from the Army after three months

The gunman who killed eight people and wounded seven others on Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets was fired from the US military in 2008, an official said. And a social media profile reviewed by The Dallas Morning News which appears to belong to him contains posts about his own death, Nazi admiration, hatred of black people and women, and a disturbing preview of the massacre.

The gunman, Mauricio Garcia, was fired after three months without completing initial training, US Army spokeswoman Heather Hagan said. He has not been fielded or awarded a specialty. Hagan said the Army doesn’t specify why the soldiers are being discharged.

However, an army officer who declined to be named said Garcia was separated under a regulation regarding a number of possible physical or mental conditions. Conditions ranged from seasickness and claustrophobia to other ailments that could disturb “perception, thinking, emotional control, or behavior” enough that “the soldier’s ability to effectively perform military duties is significantly impaired.”

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The social media account shows Garcia’s date of birth, an email address that matches his name, an anecdote of others calling him “Mr. Garcia,” mentions Fort Worth, Arlington and Dallas and an image that matches the tattoo seen in a photo of him after the shooting.

An Allen police officer shot and killed Garcia, 33, soon after he opened fire at the popular mall.

In social media posts in late April, Garcia appeared to glorify other mass shootings, asserting the importance of knowing the shooter’s race and kill count, and referring to the killings as an “art” and an “achievement.”

In posts last year and earlier this year, he also praised the “white race,” made scathing anti-Semitic remarks, and repeatedly made sexually demeaning comments about women.

A photo shows the arms of a man with swastika tattoos and the insignia of the SS, the police state of Nazi Germany. Other images show the state of Texas tattooed on his upper arm. The Dallas city logo tattooed on his left hand also appears in the social media account. The tattoo was visible in videos circulating after the shooting believed to be of Garcia’s body.

In mid-April, pictures of Allen outlets are also in posts on the social media account. The photos show images of the mall’s exterior and a screenshot from Google Maps at 3.31pm on a Saturday in April, showing the mall was “just as busy”. Filming on Saturday started around 3.30pm.

After Saturday’s shooting, law enforcement officers executed search warrants at the Budget Suites hotel at 8150 N. Stemmons Freeway, where they said Garcia was located, and at a home in northeast Dallas. County property records show that a husband and wife owned the house; his wife’s name matches that of a woman listed as Garcia’s mother in birth records. Garcia graduated from Bryan Adams High School in 2008, a Dallas Independent School District spokeswoman said. She enrolled at Dallas College in 2018 but hasn’t signed up for classes, a college official said.

Garcia has no history of serving in the state prison system, Texas Department of Criminal Justice communications director Amanda Hernandez confirmed. She had an active felony warrant for drug paraphernalia in Garland as of 2020, according to police records.

May 6, the day of the shooting, is the last post on the social account.

It contains dark song lyrics, references to horror video games, and reads like a suicide note: “Cremated ASAP,” it reads. “No open caskets, no funerals, no headstones, no signs.”

Researcher Jennifer Brancato contributed to this report.

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