The gunman who opened fire at a shopping mall in a suburb of Dallas, TX on Saturday, killing eight people, appears to have posted neo-Nazi and white supremacist content on social media, according to The Daily Beast. The shooter, Mauricio Garcia, allegedly had a profile on OK.ru, where his profile picture was a smiley face with a Hitler mustache. Bellingcat researcher Aric Toler identified the account on Monday, along with a corresponding YouTube account on which Garcia posted his face and name.
Fixation with Nazis
Although investigators have yet to announce a motive for the killing, the OK.ru account chronicles more than three years of an apparent fixation with Nazis. Some of the account’s most recent posts appear to foreshadow the mass killing. On April 16, it uploaded a series of pictures outside the Allen Outlet Mall’s H&M entrance, where Garcia would later open fire. It also shared screenshots of a page indicating the mall’s busiest hours, along with location data showing at least two previous visits to the site.
Right Wing Death Squad
In late April, the account shared pictures of body armor laden with magazines for a rifle. The bulletproof vest had a patch reading “RWDS,” an acronym for “right wing death squad.” Law enforcement had previously referenced the patch when identifying Garcia as a potential politically motivated extremist. The following day, the account posted pictures of a torso (presumably Garcia’s own) tattooed with a swastika and Nazi SS bolts, alongside a caption railing against “diversity.”
Bigotry towards Women and Minorities
Many of the posts addressed his Hispanic heritage, which some commentators previously cited when expressing doubts about his neo-Nazi leanings. In one recent post, he mused about Latino people being white and cited Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist with Hispanic heritage. Other posts include photos of weapons and ammunition, and espouse bigotry toward women, Jewish people, and racial minorities. Among them are photos of men and women giving Nazi salutes, with the caption “My kind of people.”
Shift to the Right among Hispanics
There has been a documented shift to the right among Hispanics and Latinos, and some, like open neo-Nazi and recent Donald Trump dinner partner Nick Fuentes, have taken it to extremes. In an emailed statement, Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the nonprofit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, called the notion that only whites can be white supremacists a “misnomer.”