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<\/p>\nAllen, TX… (AP) \u2014 The assailant who killed eight people at a Texas outlet mall was identified by authorities Sunday as a 33-year-old man who had been staying at a nearby motel. Three law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press named the gunman as Mauricio Garcia, who was fatally shot by a police officer who happened to be near the suburban Dallas mall. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss details of an ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One of the officials said investigators have been searching the motel and a home in the Dallas area connected to the suspect.<\/p>\n
The official said police also found multiple weapons at the scene after Garcia was fatally shot, including an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun.<\/p>\n
The gunman\u2019s name emerged as the community of Allen mourned for the dead and awaited word on the seven people who were wounded.<\/p>\n
John Mark Caton, senior pastor at Cottonwood Creek Church, about two miles from the mall, offered prayers during his weekly service for victims, first responders and the shoppers and employees who \u201cwalked out past things they never should have seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of our people were there. Some perhaps in this room. Some of our students were working in those stores and will be changed forever by this,\u201d Caton said.<\/p>\n
Recalling phone conversations with police officers, he said: \u201cThere wasn\u2019t an officer that I talked to yesterday that at some point in the call didn\u2019t cry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The church planned an evening prayer vigil in the aftermath of the shooting, which was the latest attack to contribute to the unprecedented pace of mass killings this year. Barely a week before, five people were fatally shot in Cleveland, Texas, after a neighbor asked a man to stop firing his weapon while a baby slept, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Police did not immediately provide details about the victims at Allen Premium Outlets, a sprawling outdoor shopping center, but witnesses reported seeing children among them. Some said they also saw what appeared to be a police officer and a mall security guard unconscious on the ground.<\/p>\n
A 16-year-old pretzel stand employee, Maxwell Gum, described a virtual stampede of shoppers. He and others sheltered in a storage room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started running. Kids were getting trampled,\u201d Gum said. \u201cMy co-worker picked up a 4-year-old girl and gave her to her parents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dashcam video circulating online showed the gunman getting out of a car and shooting at people on the sidewalk. More than three dozen shots could be heard as the vehicle that was recording the video drove off.<\/p>\n
Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd said seven people, including the shooter, died at the scene. Two other people died at hospitals.<\/p>\n
The wounded remained hospitalized Sunday \u2014 three in critical condition and four in fair condition, the Allen Police Department said in a statement.<\/p>\n
An Allen police officer was in the area on an unrelated call when he heard shots at 3:36 p.m., the department wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe officer engaged the suspect and neutralized the threat. He then called for emergency personnel,\u201d the post said.<\/p>\n
Mass killings have happened with staggering frequency in the United States this year, with an average of about one per week, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.<\/p>\n
In a statement, President Biden said the assailant wore tactical gear and fired an AR-15-style weapon. He urged Congress to enact tighter restrictions on firearms and ammunition.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch an attack is too shocking to be so familiar. And yet, American communities have suffered roughly 200 mass shootings already this year, according to leading counts,\u201d said Biden, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff.<\/p>\n
Republicans in Congress, he said, \u201ccannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has signed laws easing firearms restrictions following past mass shootings, called the mall attack an \u201cunspeakable tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Video shared on social media showed people running through a parking lot amid the sound of gunshots.<\/p>\n
Fontayne Payton, 35, was at H&M when he heard gunshots through his headphones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so loud, it sounded like it was right outside,\u201d Payton said.<\/p>\n
People in the store scattered before employees ushered the group into the fitting rooms and then a lockable back room, he said. When they were given the all-clear to leave, Payton saw the store had broken windows and a trail of blood to the door. Discarded sandals and bloodied clothes lay nearby.<\/p>\n
Once outside, Payton saw bodies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI pray it wasn\u2019t kids, but it looked like kids,\u201d he said. The bodies were covered in white towels, slumped over bags on the ground. \u201cIt broke me when I walked out to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further away, he saw the body of a heavyset man wearing all black. He assumed it was the shooter, Payton said, because unlike the other bodies it had not been covered.<\/p>\n
Tarakram Nunna, 25, and Ramakrishna Mullapudi, 26, said they saw what appeared to be three people motionless on the ground, including one who seemed to be a police officer and another who resembled a mall security guard.<\/p>\n
Another shopper, Sharkie Mouli, 24, said he hid in a Banana Republic. As he left, he saw someone who looked like a police officer lying unconscious next to another unconscious person outside the store.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have seen his gun lying right next to him and a guy who is like passing out right next to him,\u201d Mouli said.<\/p>\n
Stan and Mary Ann Greene were browsing in a Columbia sportswear store when the shooting started.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had just gotten in, just a couple minutes earlier, and we just heard a lot of loud popping,\u201d Mary Ann Greene told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Employees rolled down the security gate and brought everyone to the rear of the store until police arrived and escorted them out, the Greenes said.<\/p>\n
Eber Romero was at an Under Armour store when a cashier mentioned there was a shooting.<\/p>\n
As he left, the mall appeared empty and all the shops had their security gates down, Romero said. That is when he started seeing broken glass and victims of the shooting on the floor of the shopping center.<\/p>\n
Allen, a city of 105,000 residents, is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of downtown Dallas.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle and Adam Kealoha Causey in Dallas and Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
By JAKE BLEIBERG and REBECCA BOONE
\nan hour ago<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Allen, TX… (AP) \u2014 The assailant who killed eight people at a Texas outlet mall was identified by authorities Sunday as a 33-year-old man who had been staying at a nearby motel. Three law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press named the gunman as Mauricio Garcia, who was fatally shot by a police […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,16,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-law-enforcement","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/6877275683523963297.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=159610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159612,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159610\/revisions\/159612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/159611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=159610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=159610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=159610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}