7:56 p.m. ET, May 8, 2023
Gunman's social media includes posts about Nazis, weapons and mass shooters
From CNN’s Casey Tolan, Paul Murphy, Curt Devine and Josh Campbell
The gunman who killed eight people at a Texas outlet mall appears to have written approvingly about Nazi ideology, shared images of his many firearms and posted a photo of the mall on a social media website in the weeks before the shooting.
A screenshot from Russian social media site ok.ru, which appears to have been posted by shooter Mauricio Garcia.
A user on the Russian social media website Odnoklassniki posted photos of several receipts and an airline ticket with Mauricio Garcia’s name, and also listed a birthdate matching Garcia’s — who has been identified as the suspected shooter by police. A law enforcement source confirmed to CNN that investigators believe the account belonged to Garcia.
The account also posted a screenshot from Google Maps showing what times of day the mall in Allen, Texas, was busiest, a few weeks before the shooting.
A screenshot from Google Maps showing what times of day the mall in Allen, Texas, was busiest.
In a rambling post from the day of the shooting – the account’s final correspondence – Garcia quoted from South Park and other movies and TV shows, and alluded to his struggles with undisclosed personal problems.
“Even if I did go to a psychologist,” the post read, “Their (sic) not going to be able to fix with whatevers wrong with me. Besides that shit's expensive.”
Garcia also posted photos of a man’s shirtless torso with a large swastika tattoo over the heart. It’s not clear whether the man pictured is Garcia.
The existence of the account was
first reported by the New York Times, and it was later
identified by a researcher with the open-source intelligence website Bellingcat.
Garcia self-identified in some posts as an “incel,” a term that the Anti-Defamation League defines as “heterosexual men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic success.” Some posts were sexist and expressed anger toward women.
Another post expressed anger toward family members who “mocked any attempt I made to be masculine…” and “told me I was disturbed…” Yet another described people making jokes or awkward comments about the poster’s likelihood of committing mass murder.
Other photos posted on Garcia’s account include various firearms, some of which, the user wrote, he acquired in recent months. There are also photos of a body armor vest with an RWDS patch – an acronym for Right-Wing Death Squad -- that authorities have said Garcia wore during the shooting.
A body armor vest with an RWDS patch, an acronym for Right-Wing Death Squad.
In an April 24 post, Garcia praised the shooter in the
Nashville school massacre that killed six people, including three children, the month before, referring to the number of people murdered.
Other posts espoused antisemitism and echoed the “replacement theory,” the false notion that a conspiracy is underway to make the US population less White. Some gunmen motivated by racism said they were inspired by the theory.