Tag: victims
Sex abuse victims ‘must get specialist support’
Allen mall shooting victims include 3-year-old boy after Texas gunman Mauricio Garcia opened fire in shopping center
THREE children, including a three-year-old, are among the eight victims who were gunned down in a sick massacre at a Texas mall.
Mauricio Garcia, 33, from Dallas, Texas, was shot dead by police on Saturday after he opened fire at the Allen Premium Outlets.
Kyu Song Cho, Cindy Cho, and their three-year-old son James were shot dead in the tragic attack at Allen Outlet Mall[/caption]
Christian LaCour, a security guard at the mall, lost his life on Saturday[/caption]
People seen gathering around a makeshift memorial just outside of the mall where the horrific shooting took place[/caption]
Kyu Song Cho, 37, Cindy Cho, 35, and their three-year-old son James were all shot dead in the tragic attack.
Two elementary school-aged sisters, a security guard, and an engineer with a master’s degree were some of the other victims who were killed, NBC News reported.
Sisters Sofia Mendoza, eight, and Daniela Mendoza, 11, were described by their school principal as “rays of sunshine.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mendoza family, the families of the victims, and all those affected by this senseless tragedy,” the school district’s Superintendent David Vinson wrote.
Aishwarya Thatikonda, 26, was a project manager at Dallas contracting firm Perfect General Contractors, as well as a representative from the Telugu Association of North America.
“It’s a grief I’ve never experienced. I pray that this situation doesn’t happen to anybody,” her boss Srinivas Chaluvadi said.
Christian LaCour, a security guard at the mall, also lost his life in the horrific shooting.
Writing on Facebook, the 23-year-old’s grandmother described LaCour as “such a beautiful soul” who had goals for his future.
Police officials also revealed that Elio Cumana-Rivas, 32, was killed.
SICK MASSACRE
The horrifying shooting broke out at around 3.30pm on Saturday.
Dashcam footage showed the suspect exiting what is believed to be a gray Dodge Charger before opening fire on pedestrians.
Cops evacuated the mall and had shoppers and employees exit with their hands in the air.
A police officer who was on an unrelated call fatally shot the gunman, bringing an end to the rampage.
As of now, the case is being considered as a potential act of racial or ethically motivated violent extremism, NBC News reported.
At the time of the shooting, Garcia was wearing a patch on his chest that read “RWDS,” sources familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post.
This is reportedly an acronym for Right Wing Death Squad, which is popular among right-wing extremists, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists.
The suspect used an AR-15-style rifle in the shooting and multiple other guns were found at the scene, law enforcement sources told The Wall Street Journal.
Over 100 fired cartridges were also discovered at the mall.
Garcia was briefly a member of the U.S. Army and worked as a security guard.
He joined the Army in June of 2008 but was terminated from the job three months later over “physical or mental conditions,” a military official told news reporters.
The suspect had no substantial criminal history, according to reports.
A GoFundMe has been created to help support the family of Kyu and Cindy Cho and their surviving six-year-old child.
Shoppers leave with their hands up after police responded to the scene on Saturday[/caption]
Police officers stand guard outside Allen Premium Outlets after the deadly rampage[/caption]
Flowers were left at the tragic scene that killed nine including the gunman[/caption]
Officials are continuing to investigate the May 6 mass shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets mall[/caption]
‘Multiple victims’ killed by active shooter at Allen Premium Outlets
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‘Victim/Suspect’ trailer: How the criminal justice system fails victims of assault
The upcoming documentary Victim/Suspect follows journalist Rae de Leon as she investigates a disturbing pattern across sexual assault cases nationwide — survivors who go to the police to report their assaults are often treated as suspects.
In de Leon’s research, which includes recordings from police interrogations, interviews with victims, and accounts from legal experts, we learn that survivors reporting their assault are sometimes charged with or even arrested for filing a false report. Victim/Suspect offers a painful look into a criminal justice system that fails its victims and emboldens a hostile environment that threatens those who speak up. This is the latest documentary from filmmaker Nancy Schwartzman, whose harrowing investigation Roll Red Roll was nominated for a Peabody.