The suspected Texas mass shooter left a memory card with a handwritten note in it as well as additional paraphernalia linking him to the massacre in his rented hotel room, a newly-unsealed warrant showed.
A new warrant showed local police enforcement in Dallas found three boxes of ammo in the room where Mauricio Garcia, 33, stayed before killing eight people and injuring another seven at a mall in Allen, Texas on Saturday.
Investigators said they uncovered a trove of evidence linking Garcia to the shooting – including a tactical vest, a knife, handcuffs, a rifle hand guard as well as an extra holster.
The warrant shows authorities also found two black hats emblazoned with the phrase “Security” and “Killin’ It,” several CD cards and a micro SD adapter with a handwritten note. Authorities did not specify what the note said.
Garcia had reportedly been staying at the Budget Suites of America on North Stemmons Freeway before travelling to Allen to shoot up the mall.
An Army spokeswoman has since confirmed Garcia had enlisted in 2008 but had been discharged due to mental health concerns.
Army Public Affairs spokeswoman Heather J. Hagan said in a statement: “Mauricio Garcia entered the regular Army in June 2008.
“He was terminated three months later without completing initial entry training. He was not awarded a military occupational speciality. He had no deployment or awards.”
An unnamed official told WFAA that Garcia had been “separated under the 2005 edition of Army Regulation 635- 200, paragraphs 5-17, ‘Other designated physical or medical conditions.'”
An FBI bulletin to law enforcement agencies said that “an initial review and triage of the subject’s social media accounts revealed hundreds of postings and images to include writings with racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist rhetoric, including neo-Nazi material and materials espousing the supremacy of the white race.”
Investigative reporter Aric Toler said one of the accounts, which was found on the Russia site OK.RU, could be linked back to Garcia – who was shot and killed at the Mall after killing eight people, including three children.
Hours before the shooting, the account posted two dozen pictures of the shopping mall and the surrounding area. The upload also included a snap of a receipt for the guns and ammunition he bought in 2020 which he ultimately used in the shooting.
The account holder shared a video tour of his apartment in which a hand tattoo seemingly matching the one on Garcia’s own hand can be seen.
Garcia’s online activity also betrayed a fascination with white supremacy and mass shootings, which he described as sport.
Photos Garcia posted showed large Nazi tattoos on his arm and torso, including a swastika and the SS lightning bolt logo of Hitler’s paramilitary forces.
Investigators have interviewed family members and associates of Garcia to ask about his ideological beliefs and are examining his financial records and other electronic media.
The shooting was the latest attack to contribute to the unprecedented pace of mass killings this year in the US.
Five people were fatally shot in Cleveland, Texas, after a neighbour asked a man to stop firing his weapon while a baby slept just over a week before the Allen shooting.
Cox Elementary School students Daniela and Sofia Mendoza, grades four and two, were among those slain Saturday at Allen Premium Outlets, according to officials in the Wylie Independent School District.
They were remembered as “the kindest, most thoughtful students with smiles that could light up any room,” Principal Krista Wilson said in a letter to parents.
Also killed at the outdoor shopping centre were a couple and one of their sons, who was 3. The couple’s eldest son was wounded and was still hospitalized, said Myoung-Joon Kim, head of mission at the Consulate of the Republic of Korea in Dallas.
The parents were identified by the Texas Department of Public Safety as Kyu Song Cho, 37, and Cindy Cho, 35.
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