A mom of two who survived the Texas mall shooting has emotionally recalled how a sales associate hid her and 12 others inside a store bathroom — but later lost her life in the bloodbath.
Raquel Lee said she decided to go shopping Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen and parked outside the H&M store shortly before Mauricio Garcia, 33, drove up and opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle, killing eight people and wounding seven others, CBS News Texas reported.
“It sounded like a war zone,” Lee told the news outlet. “It was horrifying and it felt like you were in a dream. Like, just shock.”
Lee shared chilling video of the group sheltering inside the storage room, where they are seen making frantic phone calls and sitting on the floor.
“We were in a bathroom closet, and we were just in the closet trying not [to] be heard, crying, praying — people were trying to call 911. We couldn’t dial out,” the visibly emotional woman said.
“I just remember thinking, ‘Oh God! He’s coming in here next.’ I was crouching down like ‘I hope we don’t get hit by a bullet,’” Lee told the outlet of the harrowing experience.
“The store associate saved our lives,” she added.
The footage she captured shows the group finally being led out of the room with their hands up after police cleared the bloody scene.
What to know about the Texas outlet mall shooting
What happened?
Eight people were killed and seven wounded by Mauricio Garcia, a gunman dressed in black tactical gear who got out of his car at a Texas mall and opened fire in the parking lot — before being shot dead himself by a police officer at the scene, officials said.
The deadly mass shooting unfolded on May 6 at the Allen Premium Outlets — about 30 minutes north of Dallas — when the gunman got out of a vehicle and began firing, according to police and footage from the parking lot.
Who is Mauricio Garcia?
The gunman who killed eight people and injured seven others before being shot dead by police at a Texas outlet mall has been identified as Mauricio Garcia, 33.
A look into Garcia’s past revealed:
- He served in the Army in 2008 but was eventually “removed due to mental health concerns,” law enforcement sources told local ABC 30.
- Garcia had undergone several firearms proficiency courses in 2015 and 2018 as part of his security guard work
- Investigators began probing whether Garcia held neo-Nazi views after police found a patch on his chest with the acronym “RWDS,” which stands for “Right Wing Death Squad”
- Garcia also appeared to be casing his target for weeks. He shared more than two dozen photos of the outlets on extremist forums in the weeks leading up to his mass shooting, seemingly determining what would be the most packed time at the mall to unleash the greatest carnage, NBC said.
- The mass shooter alluded to his declining mental health, too. One of his final posts lamented that no psychologist would be able to fix him and his fears of what his family might say about him.
Who are the victims?
Six victims of the shooter were found dead at the scene, while nine others were transported to area hospitals for treatment, two of which later died from their wounds, Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd said.
The first of the victims who were publicly identified was Christian LaCour, 20, a security guard at the mall who was working when Garcia shot him.
The Korean Consulate in Dallas confirmed that Cho Kyu Song, 37, Kang Shin Young, 35 and their youngest boy, James, were also fatally shot, The Dallas Morning News reported Monday.
Officials also confirmed that young sisters Daniela and Sofia Mendoza were killed in the bloodbath, while their mother was critically wounded.
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Lee said one of the bodies she saw was that of the heroic store employee.
Two of the dead victims have been identified as 20-year-old security guard Christian LaCour and Aishwarya Thatikonda, an engineer from India who was living and working in Texas.
The feds are investigating whether Garcia, who was shot dead by a police officer, held neo-Nazi views.
During the rampage, Garcia wore a patch on his chest with the acronym “RWDS,” which stands for “Right Wing Death Squad” — a popular phrase among white supremacy groups, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press.