What is Mauricio Garcia’s social media profile?
Odnoklassniki (OK), the second-largest Russian-language social network site. You can find it at the following link, but need to register for an account (free) to see most of the profile’s information: https://ok.ru/profile/574887694166
How was this profile found?
The initial public disclosure of this OK account was from a May 8th New York Times article, in which the OK profile is mentioned.
It is unclear how the investigators cited by the NY Times learned about this account, but it is likely they searched Garcia’s home computer or phone and found this account.
Finding the account mentioned by the NY Times is quite easy via OK’s search interface. By starting with Garcia’s date of birth – October 24, 1989 – we can just search for all men living in America born on that day. The third result of only 62 people is an account with a Hitler smiley face.
Why would he have an account on a dying Russian social network?
We know that Garica had accounts on YouTube and Facebook from his posts on OK, but they were frequently suspended. He had zero friends on his OK account, and was not in any groups. It appears quite likely that he was using this account as a sort of personal diary where he would not be subject to any content moderation. If he posted most of the content of this account – swastikas, threats of violence, etc. – on major Western social networks, it would be taken down quite quickly.
Garcia also posted countless photographs from his personal, handwritten diary on his OK page.
How do we know it’s really Mauricio Garcia’s profile?
Even a small amount of digging into this profile reveals that it is Mauricio Garcia. Outside of contextual clues – such as a manifesto saying farewell posted right before the May 6th shooting – he also posts numerous photographs of identification documents. For example, he posted:
– A speeding ticket with his name on it.
– An identification card from when he was a kid, showing his birthday that matches that of the Allen, TX shooter.
– A boarding pass with his name, from a trip between Detroit and Dallas.
We can also match the Mauricio Garcia from the OK profile to the photograph of the dead Mauricio Garcia at the mall in Allen, TX. On the left hand of the dead shooter, there is a tattoo of a logo of the city of Dallas, TX.
This same tattoo can be seen in numerous photographs and videos on the OK profile of Garcia, including during a long apartment walkthrough video from April 15, 2023 and a nearly-hour-long video of him at a shooting range.
What about the guy with the neck tattoo?
He’s just a random guy with the same name. He has nothing to do with the shooting. Police have noted that the shooter was 33 years old (born 1989), and the Mauricio Garcia with the neck tattoo is a few years older (born 1986).
If you’ve seen a mug shot – it’s not the Allen, TX shooter, as the police have noted he has no prior criminal record.
Did he post about the shooting on his profile?
On April 15, three weeks prior to the shooting, Garica posted photographs of the eventual site of his mass shooting. He also posted an image showing peak times of customers at the mall, and a Google Map screenshot of the location.
On April 21st, Garcia posted a photograph of a vest with the RWDS (Right-Wing Death Squad) patch that he wore during the shooting.
At 7:10am (Central/US) on May 6, 2023, just hours before the shooting, Garcia posted something resembling a manifesto or final message. It is filled with quotes from television shows, music, video games, and movies, ending with a quotation from the South Park movie. You can read it here.
Did he have Nazi tattoos?
A month before the Allen, TX mall shooting, Garica wrote about and later posted photographs of his new tattoos – an SS sign on his right arm and a giant swastika on his left breast. The SS tattoo cost $60, and the swastika $80.
What other tattoos did he have?
His tattoos include:
- Texas on his right shoulder. This is visible in the image above showing the SS tattoo.
- Dallas Fort Worth, with a Longhorn logo, on his left side. The “D” above this tattoo is barely visible in the above swastika tattoo image.
- 10/6 on his left shoulder, a reference to the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. The “1” of the tattoo is visible in the above swastika tattoo, on his left shoulder.
- “Panther”, which is a reference to Fort Worth, TX.
- Deus Vult on his wrists
- A Punisher logo on his right arm
Is there any data showing that the Allen mall shooter was in the cartel or any gangs?
No.
Were his Nazi photos actually taken from Reddit?
Garcia took an assortment of photographs showing various people dressed in Nazi gear from external sources and reposted them, with the caption “My kind of people”. He never tried to represent them as being photos he took himself, or of himself. However, his swastika tattoo photographs are of himself.