ALLEN, Texas (KETK) – Authorities have identified the victims of the mass shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas.
According to the Texas Department of Safety, the youngest victim was a 3-year-old boy from Dallas. The oldest were his parents.
The victims, all from Texas, have been identified as:
- Female, age 11, Sachse
- Female, age 8, Sachse
- Kyu Song Cho, male, age 37, Dallas
- Cindy Cho, female, age 35, Dallas
- Male, age 3, Dallas
- Christian LaCour, male, age 20, Nevada
- Elio Cumana-Rivas, male, age 32, Dallas
- Aishwarya Thatikonda, female, age 26, McKinney
While authorities declined to identify victims under the age of 18, officials in the Wylie Independent School District said two students at its Cox Elementary School – Daniela and Sofia Mendoza, grades four and two – were among those killed. They were remembered as “the kindest, most thoughtful students with smiles that could light up any room,” Principal Krista Wilson said in a letter to parents.
Three members of a Korean American family – Kyu Song Cho, Cindy Cho, and one of their sons – were killed in the shooting. Another son was wounded and was still hospitalized, said Myoung-Joon Kim, head of mission at the Consulate of the Republic of Korea in Dallas.
Christian LaCour was a security guard at the mall, Andria Gaither, assistant manager at the mall’s Tommy Hilfiger, told The Associated Press. She said she was devastated to learn one of the dead was LaCour, a who previously worked at the clothing store and often stopped in to chat.
Also killed was Aishwarya Thatikonda, 26, who was from India, held a graduate degree in construction management and worked as a civil engineer at the Dallas-area firm Perfect General Contractors.
She was “always prepared to give her very best,” company founder Srinivas Chaluvadi said via email. He said her parents live in Hyderabad, India, where her father is a judge.
“She came to the United States with a dream to make a career, build a family, own a home and live forever in Dallas,” Chaluvadi said.
Chaluvadi said Thatikonda would have turned 27 next week and she had become like family: “She attended birthday parties at my home, we celebrated festivals together and we had family dinners.”
Ashok Kolla, treasurer of the Telugu Association of North America, told The Dallas Morning News that he didn’t know Thatikonda but the association often helps families and he is working to send her body back home.
Authorities are still trying to piece together what led to the attack, which ended when the suspected gunman — 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia — was fatally shot by police.
Federal officials are looking into whether Garcia expressed an interest in white supremacist ideology, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official cautioned that the investigation is in its early stages.
Federal agents have been reviewing social media accounts they believe Garcia used, as well as posts that expressed interest in white supremacist and neo-Nazi views, said the official, who could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
