Texas Mall Shooting: Hyderabad Woman Among Nine Killed In Shooting

Aishwarya and her friends were at the mall when a gun wielding man opened fire at the shoppers.

A 27-year-old woman identified as Aishwarya Thatikonda was among the nine individuals who tragically lost their lives during a shooting incident at an outlet mall located north of Dallas on Saturday. Aishwarya, daughter of Tatikonda Narsireddy, an additional district judge currently serving at the Ranga Reddy District Commercial Courts complex, was one of the victims.

According to ABP Desam reports, Aishwarya and her friends were present at the mall when a man armed with a gun opened fire on shoppers. Aishwarya, employed as an engineer and working as a project manager at a private company in Texas, was among those caught in the attack.

Video footage circulating online captured the moment when the shooter emerged from a sedan in the parking lot of the outlet mall on Saturday, using a semi-automatic rifle to indiscriminately shoot at pedestrians. Prompt response from a nearby officer, who was attending an unrelated call, led to the "neutralization" of the shooter at the large facility in Allen, according to local authorities and news agency AFP.

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Witnesses, as well as distressed police and emergency responders, described the scene as one of panic and horror. Seven individuals were pronounced dead at the scene, including the shooter, while two more individuals succumbed to their injuries at the hospital.

"Three individuals are undergoing critical surgery, and four are in stable condition," stated Allen fire chief Jonathan Boyd on Saturday. The shooter has been identified as a 33-year-old man named Mauricio Garcia.

This tragic incident adds to the disconcerting pattern of deadly gun violence in the United States. Just a week prior, a man shot five of his neighbours after being requested to stop firing his rifle due to a sleeping baby nearby. In recent weeks, several other individuals have lost their lives due to disputes or unfortunate misunderstandings, such as knocking on the wrong door or entering the wrong vehicle.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-governmental organization that defines a mass shooting as an incident resulting in four or more individuals being wounded or killed, the United States has already experienced 199 mass shootings this year. The alarming frequency of such incidents continues to raise concerns about gun violence in the country.