Right-Wing Death Squads & Radicalization: What Led to the Allen Massacre?

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Outlet malls are supposed to be places where you score a good deal on shoes, not where

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your life depends on how fast you can run.

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But on May 6, 2023 in Alan, Texas, a man in black stepped out of his car and made sure

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that wasn't the case.

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This wasn't random.

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He had a plan, a carefully mapped out, Google reviewed, Weapons Stock Piled Plan.

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He spent weeks preparing, taking pictures of the mall, tracking its busiest hours.

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And, because he clearly needed an audience, uploaded his 300-page diary to a Russian

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social media site.

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What he wrote in there?

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Let's just say it wasn't poetry.

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What followed was four minutes of absolute devastation.

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And what investigators uncovered afterward, that's the part that will leave you wondering

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how many red flags can pile up before someone decides to actually do something.

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Before we dive into this story, if you like your true crime brief and bingeable, you're

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in the right place.

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It followed now for at least two new episodes every week.

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This is 10 Minute Murder.

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Let's get into it.

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On May 6, 2023, a man dressed head to toe in black pulled up to an outlet mall in Alan

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Texas.

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No hesitation, no build up, just cold, deliberate action.

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The second his foot hit the pavement, he raised his gun and started shooting.

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There was no pattern, no target, just bullets flying toward anyone in range.

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People scrambled, diving behind displays, ducking into storage rooms.

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All employees suddenly thrust into the role of makeshift first responders, guided strangers

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to whatever cover they could find.

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It lasted four minutes, four minutes in which 15 people were shot.

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Eight never made it out, including three children.

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Among the seven survivors were parents who lost their children and children who lost their

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entire families.

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Amid the horror, one military veteran on the scene did not hesitate.

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He dropped to his knees and started performing CPR, trying to keep victims alive.

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Later he recalled that many of the wounded were so badly injured, they couldn't even

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be treated on the spot.

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They needed hospitals, fast.

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Then a break in the nightmare.

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If you could, even call it that.

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An off-duty police officer happened to be at the mall, no backup, no waiting, just a

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trained officer with his own weapon moving toward the gunfire while panicked 911 calls

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flooded dispatch.

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When he saw the shooter, he fired, three shots, ear, arm, mouth.

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The last one ended it.

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The shooter went down before he could take more lives.

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This officer did not hesitate.

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He didn't blink, he didn't think twice.

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He just did what needed to be done.

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Now the death toll stood at nine, including the shooter himself.

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And with him gone, so was any chance of a confession.

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No interrogation, no courtroom cross examination, just a pile of chaos left behind for investigators

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to sift through.

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They had to work backward, following the trail of public records and digital footprints,

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trying to answer the one question that mattered most.

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Why?

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The shooter was identified as 33-year-old Mauricio Martinez Garcia, but figuring out what

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led him to that moment wasn't so simple.

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He had no criminal record.

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Nothing to suggest he'd been planning something this violent.

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The earliest red flag, 2008, at 18 Mauricio joined the military and completed basic training.

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But before he could move forward, before he even got to weapons training, he was discharged

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over concerns about his mental health.

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Since he hadn't committed any crimes, nothing about his discharge made its way to any official

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record.

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After that, his life became a string of jobs, one leading to the next without much direction.

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Eventually, he landed work as a security guard, a job that required him to undergo weapons

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training.

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That training, plus the time he spent at shooting ranges, as seen in his social media posts,

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gave him the skills he would eventually use to take innocent lives.

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At the time of the shooting, Mauricio had been living in a motel.

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When investigators searched his room, they found a diary.

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Now you might expect something obvious, some angry, hate-fueled manifesto spelling out

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his reasons in black and white.

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But that wasn't the case.

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His diary wasn't a confession.

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It wasn't even a blueprint for violence.

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Instead, it was a slow motion unraveling.

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Page by page, post by post.

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Investigators traced Mauricio's decline, his mind twisting, his thoughts turning darker.

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They followed his path straight into the depths of extreme far-right radicalization.

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Not overnight, not all at once, but step by step, thought by thought, until it led him to

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that mall, that gun, that decision.

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Mauricio Garcia didn't just keep a diary.

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He published it.

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Over 300 pages of his handwritten thoughts made their way to a Russian social media site,

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where he meticulously uploaded each page one by one.

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And in those pages, a mix of the mundane and the unhinged.

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He ran to about former bosses and co-workers, detailing the imaginary fights he wished he'd

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had with people who crossed him on the street.

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Then just as casually, he'd write about concerts, parties, and past relationships.

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Women were a frequent subject.

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Some he'd been with, some he'd only wished he had.

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His diary included graphic descriptions of the nurses he encountered in the hospital,

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recounting how their attention toward him had aroused him to the points of masturbating

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to the memory.

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But underneath it all was an unraveling.

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His thoughts shifted between self-loathing and blame.

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In one entry, he lamented becoming an in-sell, a term used by men who believe they are involuntarily

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celibate because of women's rejection.

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In another, he expressed resentment toward his own Hispanic community, writing about how

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he once wished he was white, because his own race had treated him so poorly.

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From there, his diary became a manifesto of resentment, critiquing the Hispanic community

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stands on poverty, politics, and racial dynamics.

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With every entry, he drifted further into radicalization, spiraling into the dark corners

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of extremist ideology.

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At some points, something inside him broke, though when exactly is hard to say.

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When Mauricio stepped out of his car that day, he was wearing a tactical vest with a patch

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reading "RWDS" – an acronym for "Writewing Death Squad".

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This wasn't some random edgy phrase.

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It was a reference to a paramilitary death squad from the 1970s Latin America, infamous for

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their brutal execution of left-wing dissidents.

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Victims were loaded onto helicopters and thrown to their deaths in what were called "death

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flights".

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Today, extremist groups idolized RWDS and what it stood for.

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And Mauricio wasn't just wearing the patch, he was living the ideology.

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His vest wasn't the only clue.

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Two neo-Nazi tattoos were inked onto his body, and on his Russian social media profile,

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he'd shared photos of them alongside rants about Jewish, Muslim, and Arab people, as well

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as an increasing disdain for women.

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Mauricio Garcia's attack on the Alan Premium Outlets was anything but spontaneous.

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It was the result of meticulous planning and chilling foresight.

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This before the shooting, Garcia conducted a thorough reconnaissance of the mall.

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He posted numerous photos of the building and its parking lot on his profile.

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These posts included screenshots of Google Geolocation Information, indicating he had previously

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visited the mall on May 14, 2022, January 7, 2023, and April 15, 2023.

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He also shared screenshots showing the mall's busiest times and had an indoor map of the

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facility.

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Garcia's preparations extended to amassing a significant arsenal.

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He had at least four different pistols, two assault rifles, a pump action shotgun, and

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large amounts of ammunition.

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A digital receipt indicated that he had purchased more firearms in the year leading up to the

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attack.

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Just 24 minutes before initiating the attack, Garcia sent links to his YouTube and his Russian

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profile to a rock singer.

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Prior to this, these accounts had been private, with no followers or friends, suggesting a deliberate

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move to publicize his extremist views.

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This calculated approach underscores that Garcia's actions were not merely an outburst of

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violence, but a premeditated attempt to inflict maximum harm and achieve notoriety.

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The Alan Mall shooting wasn't an isolated incident.

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It was a part of a disturbing pattern in Texas and across the United States.

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In 2023, Texas experienced a surge in gun violence.

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The state had the second highest number of mass shootings in the country, with only California

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reporting more.

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Nationally, the numbers were actually pretty alarming.

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By December 2023, the United States had endured 39 mass shootings, surpassing previous

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records.

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In the aftermath of the Alan shooting, President Joe Biden addressed the nation, stating,

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"Thoughts and prayers are not enough."

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He urged Congress to pass an assault weapons ban and implement universal background checks.

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Despite these calls for action, legislative changes remained elusive.

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The political landscape continued to hinder significant reforms, leaving communities vulnerable

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to future tragedies.

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The Alan community, like so many others before it, was left to grapple with the aftermath.

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Local leaders expressed their grief and solidarity, emphasizing the need for collective healing.

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The Alan Mall shooting serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing challenges posed by gun violence

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here in America.

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It underscores the urgency for comprehensive solutions to address this persistent and

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devastating issue.

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Thank you for listening to this episode of 10 Minute Murder.

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I'm Joe, the host.

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current political time where no one really wants to see that stuff day in, day out, if you

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go to 10minutemerder.com, in the blog section, I'm going to start uploading more and more of

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Like for this episode in particular, where I talked about certain things, those photos

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It's, I say new.

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I mean, it's a few months old.

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So check that out if you want to.

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And that's going to do it for this episode.

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Again, thank you so much for listening to 10 Minute Murder.