Three children among eight killed in Texas mall shooting – as one boy left orphaned
Three children are among the eight people killed in Saturday’s shooting at a Texas shopping centre – with one child orphaned after his parents and brother died.
Mauricio Garcia opened fire at Allen Premium Outlets, 25 miles (40 km) north of downtown Dallas, sending shoppers running for their lives.
Kyu Song Cho, 37, and Cindy Cho, 35, died in the carnage, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
A GoFundMe page and local media said their three-year-old son, James, was also killed and that their other child, six-year-old William, survived and is now an orphan.
Sky’s US partner NBC News said two young sisters also died and that their mother was in a critical condition.
Daniela Mendoza, 11, and eight-year-old Sofia Mendoza were named in a letter from their school in Sachse, Texas, which called the girls “rays of sunshine”.
Security guard Christian LaCour, 23, and Aishwarya Thatikonda, a 26-year-old engineer from India, also died, said the public safety department.
Mr LaCour’s grandmother described him as “such a beautiful soul”, according to a post on Facebook.
“He was such a beautiful soul, 20 years old with goals for his future. I was so proud of him and so glad I got to see him two weeks ago,” said Sandra Montgomery.
Officials said the eighth person killed was Elio Cumana-Rivas, 32, from Dallas.
Aishwarya Thatikonda (left) and Christian LaCour died in the shooting
Garcia, 33, was captured on video getting out of a vehicle in the car park wearing tactical gear and immediately opening fire with an AR-15 style assault rifle.
Shoppers ran for cover and some hid in shops which locked their doors to keep the gunman out.
Wetzel’s Pretzels worker Maxwell Gum said a panicked family ran in as gunfire sounded in the background.
He took them into a delivery corridor, hoping it would be a safe place to hide, but found chaos.
“There were probably like 300 people pouring in from all the different doors,” the teenager said, adding that people were “freaking out”.
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Worker helps people flee Texas shooting
Authorities are looking at social media accounts that suggest Garcia was a neo-Nazi sympathiser with an interest in white supremacy ideology.
He had a patch reading ‘RWDS’ on his chest when police shot him dead, an acronym that means Right Wing Death Squad.
A handgun was one of several firearms he had on him. Police said the officer that ended the massacre was in the area on an unrelated call.
It’s also emerged the killer was kicked out of the army after just three months in 2008. An army official, speaking anonymously, said it was due to mental health issues.
Garcia’s neighbours in Dallas said they believed he worked as a security guard but weren’t sure exactly where.
People pray at a makeshift memorial a the scene of the shooting. Pic: AP
Seven people were also wounded in the attack.
Medical City Healthcare said on Monday that six of them were being treated at three of its hospitals.
Three were critical, two were in fair condition and one was in good condition at a children’s hospital. A seventh injured person was taken to a different hospital, police said.
The shooting comes just over a week after a man shot five people dead in Cleveland, Texas, after he was asked to stop firing his gun outside because a baby was asleep.
Twenty one people, including 19 children, also died last May in Texas when a gunman entered Robb Eementary School.
Shoppers left the scene with their hands raised
The killings in Allen were the latest in at least 199 mass shootings in the US so far in 2023, according to non-profit group Gun Violence Archive.
Protesters called for stricter gun laws at the Texas Capitol on Monday and two Republicans backed a Democrat proposal to raise the age of buying semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.
However, the bill has virtually no chance of becoming law in a state where millions support liberal weapons laws.
President Biden has renewed calls for Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as to enact universal background checks and end immunity for gun manufacturers.
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he “will not back down” from Russia’s goals in Ukraine during a phone call today, the Kremlin has said.
The Russian president spoke to his US counterpart for almost an hour, and Mr Trump “again raised the issue of an early end to military action” in Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
In response, Mr Putin said “Russia will not back down” from its aims there, which include “the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Mr Ushakov said.
The phrase “root causes” is shorthand for Moscow’s argument that it was compelled to invade Ukraine in order to prevent the country from joining NATO.
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Trump and Putin’s latest call on Ukraine
Ukraine and its European allies say this is a pretext to justify what they call an imperial-style war, but Mr Trump has previously shown sympathy with Russia.
At the same time, Mr Putin told the US president that Russia is ready to continue negotiating, the aide said.
The Russian president said any prospective peace deal must see Ukraine give up its NATO bid and recognise his country’s territorial gains.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seen with Mr Trump in June, is pushing for Ukraine to join NATO. Pic: Reuters
He also briefed Mr Trump on agreements made last month, which saw Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war and dead soldiers.
Specific dates for the third round of peace talks in Istanbul were not discussed – nor was the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s call came after the Pentagon confirmed some weapons due to be sent to Ukraine have been held as it reviews military stockpiles.
The paused shipments include air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, two people familiar with the situation have said.
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The decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv on Wednesday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington.
Kyiv also cautioned that the move would weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s phone call was the sixth they have publicly disclosed since the US president returned to the White House in January.
Donald Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ has been passed by the US congress, sending it to the president to sign into law.
The controversial tax breaks and spending cuts package cleared its final hurdle as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the bill with a 218-214 vote.
The bill delivers tax breaks Mr Trump promised in his 2024 election campaign, cuts health and food safety programmes, and zeroes out dozens of green energy incentives.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), it will lower tax revenues by $4.5trn over 10 years and add $3.4trn to the US’s $36.2trn debt.
But despite concerns over the 869-page bill’s price tag – and its hit to healthcare programmes – Republicans largely lined up in support, with just two rebelling on the vote.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is congratulated following the vote. Pic: Reuters
Every Democrat in Congress voted against the bill, blasting it as a giveaway to the wealthy that will leave millions of Americans uninsured.
House Speaker Mike Johnson made the Republicans’ closing argument for the bill, telling Congress: “For everyday Americans, this means real, positive change that they can feel.”
Earlier, the House’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries gave a record-breaking eight-hour and 44-minute speech against it.
“The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires,” he said.
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The bill’s spending cuts largely target Medicaid, the health programme that covers 71 million Americans on low incomes.
It will tighten enrolment standards, institute a work requirement and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments.
The changes could leave nearly 12 million people without health insurance, according to the CBO.
On the other side of the ledger, it will stave off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of the year, when tax cuts from President Trump’s first term were due to expire.
It also sets up new tax breaks for overtime pay, seniors and tipped income.
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The bill narrowly passed the US Senate on Tuesday after vice president JD Vance cast the deciding vote to break a 50-50 tie.
Mr Trump will sign it into law on Friday at 5pm local time (10pm in the UK), the White House said.
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