Thank you, Stasia.
Now let's get to our team
coverage on the tragedy and Allen.
This all happened at the
popular premium outlets about
30 miles north of Dallas.
Breaking news anchor Megan Mitchell
is there to begin our coverage.
Megan, good
morning to you.
And I'm actually looking just past the camera
here at 75 and you can see that there are a
number of commuters that are picking up for
Stasia just going over your traffic and.
I think that's the first time since Saturday
that we're starting to see that routine.
People going to work, people going back
to school since this shooting on Saturday.
And it's a bleak reminder here that the
families of eight people are not going
back to their normal routines.
So let's bring you through how this started.
On Saturday, a gunman opened fire
here at Allen Premium Outlets.
Police say 33 year old
Mauricio Garcia rather.
Began shooting at this outdoor mall,
killing eight people with an AR15 in moments.
Seven others were hurt, all between
the ages of five and 61 years old.
Three people, by the way,
are still in critical condition now.
Police say that an armed officer at this
mall chased down and killed the shooter.
While witnesses describe chaos of
people pouring out of stores running
to meet family and loved ones.
You know,
we're also hearing stories of
folks who went into survival mode
and protecting themselves.
Or protecting their loved ones After,
of course,
a year of close to 200 mass
shootings so far in 2023.
Now overnight we have new surveillance video.
This shows a fat burger worker leading
customers into a service corridor for safety,
and these employees at Wetzel's
Pretzels taking cover.
I hid behind a freezer and we
everybody thought that we were doomed.
And you can actually see that
that memorial behind me is growing
since yesterday when we brought you
this memorial yesterday on WFAA.
Let's go now to Suzanne Bruno,
who actually is more on the victims
in this case and what we're
learning about how the community
is coming together. Suzanne.
Yeah. Hi, Megan. This tragedy being
felt across the city of Allen,
including here at Green Elementary,
we're in just a couple of hours.
Students and staff will come
together for a moment of silence,
and they're doing this along with two other
elementary schools in the community. Now.
Two of the eight people killed Saturday
have been identified by their loved ones,
20 year old Christian Lacour
and Aishwarya Fatikonda.
Lacour was working as a security guard at
the time of the shooting at the outlets.
His family said he lived in Farmersville,
which is east of Allen.
On Facebook, Lacour's mother said
she and the family are broken.
And I quote he's my baby,
my light, my peace, and he's gone.
Aishwarya Fatti Konda was out at the
mall Saturday with a friend and she
was shopping for her 28th birthday.
Her friend is stable at Medical
City McKinney,
and a family representative said
that Fatti Konda was an engineer
who lived in McKinney,
and her friends describe
her as friendly and lovable.
They're really in shock, and we
were all hoping that we are going
to have some hope we'll be able to
find her alive.
And as you can see here,
a lot of people showed up to Sun Creek United
Methodist Church for a vigil last night.
There, Pastor Barry Hughes wanted to
provide a space for folks to feel peace
and to hear words of encouragement
and to learn ways to take action.
And there, they also encourage members
to call their representatives to talk
about their thoughts on gun violence.
And they also provided mental health
resources here in Collin County.
There will be counseling services
for those who.
Are affected by the shooting and
counselors will be on site here
at Green Elementary School today.
And they will also be at all the
other schools across the city
to help students and staff.
Megan.
Yeah. And you know,
folks we talked with here,
Suzanne, say that this has become
all to normal in America, right.
And I think even within
the last couple months,
we can see that normalcy getting even worse.
I mean, we are seeing mass
shooting after mass shooting.
The latest of course here in our
area and I think the main question
is why is this happening and that's
where investigators come in.
Yeah. And 24 hours ago at this time
we knew nothing about the shooter.
We did not have that memorial
behind me this morning, quite a bit
different that memorial overflowing.
We also have a lot more details
about who the shooter was and
also some possible motivations.
Texas DPS identified that shooter
as 33 year old Mauricio Garcia.
WFAA did obtain a search warrant
that said several handguns,
long guns and ammunition were found
inside the Dodge Charger that he
drove here to the outlet mall.
We could see police looking through
that vehicle from our chopper
on the day of the shooting.
Within hours of the shooting,
though, investigators were at a
home in northeast Dallas talking to
the shooter's parents and also at a
Budget Suites hotel room in Dallas
where Garcia listed his address.
Employees at the hotel confirmed that,
yes, he was living there.
Now, no word yet on what additional
evidence they may have found,
but sources for both WFAA&ABC News say
that Garcia served in the Army until 2008,
when his service ended due
to mental health concerns.
The same sources say that he's voiced
extremist views and a dislike for
people of color and Jewish people,
but he did not have a criminal history.
Federal agents when they search through
that hotel room they're trying to get.
They're hands on as many of
Garcia's belongings as they can.
They're hoping that that contains
some kind of evidence that gives them
a hint as to his motivations or any
planning that went into this attack.
Now coming up in 30 minutes,
I mentioned that they were at
his parents home.
We were in that neighborhood as well.
While they were talking to them,
we talked to some of the neighbors.
They gave us an idea of what Garcia's
life was like leading up to this attack.
So we'll talk about that in 30 minutes
maybe. Absolutely, Chris.
And you know, I I think one of
the things I want to mention
is the fact that pure WFAA.
I mean, so much of the information
that we're getting is from sources,
from the Police Department,
but also people right here,
witnesses from the scene.
And so we are really hoping
to get more information just
within the last 30 minutes.
We reached out to the
Dallas Police Department,
who's the primary source and primary
organization investigating this crime,
on if they can give us a press
conference and interview anything
just to get more information because
we have not had one of those since
this happened more than 40 hours ago.
Back to you.