Right-wing commentators have questioned the authenticity of an account showing a fascination with white supremacy linked to the suspected shooter.
Extremist posts by an account on Russian social media that has been linked to the suspect in the Texas mall shooting have sparked an online debate about the motivation for the attack.
Mauricio Garcia, 33, was named by authorities as having carried out the shooting on Saturday in Allen, a suburb northeast of Dallas, Texas, which left eight people dead and several others injured. Online researchers have since identified an account on OK.ru, believed to belong to the suspect, which shows tattoos of Nazi imagery and expresses a fascination with mass shootings.
Some hate watchdogs have said that the posts reveal the suspected shooter—who was killed by a police officer—to have an antisemitic and white supremacist ideology. Others, including right-wing commentators, have suggested the social media account raises more questions than it answers.
“This thing is suspect,” Ian Miles Cheong, a conservative commentator, tweeted. “Why was he using a Russian social media site to write [what] was essentially a diary to zero followers?”
Investigators have yet to say what they believe was the motivation for the attack but federal agents have reviewed the online posts, an anonymous law enforcement source told the Associated Press.
Among those killed in the attack were a Korean American couple and their 3-year-old son, two elementary-age sisters, an engineer and a security guard.
Officials said that the shooter was wearing a patch that said “RWDS”—an acronym for “Right Wing Death Squad,” a white supremacist phrase—when carrying out the shooting. An image of a vest with an “RWDS” patch was pictured on the social media account on April 21.
