“After reviewing the facts of the investigation, the grand jury returned a ‘no bill’ on Tuesday, June 27 which indicates that the use of force was justified under Texas law,” the statement noted.
Just after 3:30 p.m. on May 6, 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia shot and killed eight people and injured several more. Garcia was shot and killed by an Allen officer who was at the mall, responding to an unrelated call.
A spokesman for the Allen PD told the Observer the department is continuing to keep the responding officer’s name from being publicly available at his request. At the beginning of the 5 minute, 32 second video, the officer is speaking to a woman and two children about seatbelt safety in a section of the mall’s parking lot when the popping sound of gunshots can be heard in the distance, off-camera.
As the woman ducks and takes both children by the arms to move away, the officer says into his radio, “I think we got shots fired at the outlet mall.” As the officer reaches into his vehicle, with more audible gunshots in the distance, he adds, “We got people running.”
"I think we got shots fired at the outlet mall.” – Unnamed Allen Police officer on bodycam footage
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As the officer begins running up a parking lot aisle towards the gunshot sounds, he notes the shots are moving farther away as he directs cars in the parking lot to “get moving” and to “get out of here.”
At the 1:28 mark of the footage, the officer slows his pace as he rounds a corner of the mall’s building, where a voice can be heard yelling, followed by more gunshots. The officer seemed to be getting much closer to the gunman, as the shots are much louder at this point in the video than at the beginning.
“I’m still moving, I’m trying to get where they’re shooting,” said the officer when responding to a call on the radio asking for his location. As gunshots continued to be heard, the officer adds, “I’m on foot, I need everybody I got.” As his pace begins to pick back up, and gunshots grow louder, the officer seems to start understanding the situation more fully when he asks someone off camera, “What you got? A real mass shooter?”
Just before the four-minute mark, the officer fires his rifle into a mall corridor. After several shots the officer reports into his radio “shots fired by police, I’ve got him down,” before firing again and yelling “drop the gun!” As music continues to play on speakers in the corridor, the officer steadily makes his way toward where Garcia went down.
Another officer with a gun aimed at Garcia’s blurred-out body joins the first-responding officer. The video ends with the additional officer saying “you good, you good,” as the first-responding officer wearing the bodycam replies, “You good? We got him?”
“This video shows how quickly a routine interaction with the public turned into a life-and-death situation,” said Allen police Chief Brian Harvey in the press release. “The officer recognized the danger, ran toward the gunfire and neutralized the threat – and for his actions, the Allen community is forever grateful.”
The bodycam footage comes three weeks after the Allen Fire Department released a comprehensive timeline of its response to the mass shooting. The release also marks the first official law enforcement update from the Allan PD, Texas Rangers and the FBI, the three agencies investigating the shooting, since a press conference three days after the massacre on May 9.
Allen Premium Outlets reopened on May 31 with increased security and an announcement that plans for a permanent memorial are in the works.
