Back-to-back tragedies struck different areas of Texas last weekend. The incidents claimed the lives of almost twenty people and injured around the same number.
The first tragedy happened at the Allen Outlet Mall, half an hour away from Dallas, on Saturday afternoon. All was well in the mall when suddenly, a man armed with an AR-15 rifle and tactical gear stormed the place and started shooting randomly. An officer near the incident responded and in a shoot-out, killed the perpetrator. But it was too late as he had fatally woulded eight people, including a security guard, and engineer, two young children, and a family of three with a three-year-old boy.
He was later identified as Mauricio Garcia, a 33-year-old resident of Dallas. Upon further investigation, the authorities found that the suspect’s motive was politically-driven. His social media posts were about right-wing extremist sentiments. In fact, on the day of the shooting, he was wearing a patch on his chest that read “RWDS” that stood for “Right Wing Death Squad.”
Citizens of Dallas started a GoFundMe for the family of the victims, especially the young family who died.
While the whole city was reeling from the attack on Saturday, another incident took place only a few hours later on Sunday morning in Brownsville. An SUV turned out from nowhere and rammed into a bus stop before 8:30 AM, killing eight migrants and left ten more injured.
The police was able to apprehend the suspect, 34-year-old George Alvarez, who was already familiar with the police for various crimes. The investigation is still ongoing and the authorities have yet to find a motive behind the horrific accident.
The Brownsville incident kept the police busy until another incident occured in Dallas again. Eight hours after the bus stop tragedy, a shooter went rampaging in the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system (DART), this time, killing one and injuring two people.
The crime happened in the Green Line station which was promptly shut down for a couple of hours after the shooting. After the incident, the suspect left the scene and ran, but DART police said that they caught him on Monday together with the weapon used in the shooting.
Investigation on the three separate incidents were hindered because the Dallas police had a ransomware attack a few days before the Allen Mall shooting. But the FBI said that they are coordinating with the local authorities to aid in the investigation.