rom A si A Allen Texas mall shooting: Aishwarya Thatikonda, an Indian engineer, among victims

Ayoung security guard and an engineer from India were among the victims of Saturday’s deadly shooting at a shopping mall near Dallas, Texas.

Eight people, including children, were killed in the attack, which also left seven wounded.

The 33-year-old perpetrator was shot and killed by a police officer who was nearby responding to an unrelated call.

Police are now investigating whether the attacker was motivated by right-wing extremist ideology.

While information about the victims is still trickling out in the wake of the shooting, two of the dead have so far been identified.

Here’s what we know so far.

Aishwarya Thatikonda, 27

Aishwarya Thatikonda, an Indian engineer who lived in the Dallas suburb of McKinney, was among those killed according to a family representative.

Thatikonda, 27, was at the Allen mall with a friend when the shooting took place. Her friend was wounded in the shooting.

Her family is now planning to repatriate her remains to India with the help of the Telegu Association of North America.

Ms Thatikonda’s LinkedIn profile shows that she graduated with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering in India in 2018, before receiving a Master’s degree in construction management from Eastern Michigan University in the US in 2020.

For the last two years, she was working for a Dallas-based contracting firm on a US work visa.

The Cho family

Two parents and their child were killed in the shooting, say officials from the South Korean consulate in Houston, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The parents were named as Cho Kyu Song, 37 and Kang Shin Young, 35. Officials added that they are American citizens of Korean descent.

Their son James Cho, 3, was the youngest victim of the attack.

A verified GoFundMe page says that they were at the mall to exchange clothing that their 6-year-old son had received as a birthday gift only four days prior.

The couple’s six-year-old was injured and has been released from the hospital intensive care unit. He is the only surviving member of the family.

“An afternoon that should have been filled with light, love and celebration unfortunately was cut short by another mass shooting massacre,” friends of the family wrote on a fundraiser page.

Two sisters

Daniela Mendoza and her sister Sofia were killed in the attack, according to officials from their school district.

Their mother, Ida Mendoza, remains in critical condition in hospital.

The principal of their primary school, Cheri Cox Elementary School, described the girls as “rays of sunshine” in an email sent to the school community on Monday.

“Words cannot express the sadness we feel as we grieve the loss of our students,” principal Krista Wilson wrote to parents.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mendoza family, the families of the victims, and all those affected by this senseless tragedy.”

Christian LaCour, 20

One of the victims of the attack was Christian LaCour, a 20-yearold security guard.

His sister, Brianna Smith, told ABC News that he was on-duty at the mall in Allen, Texas when the shooting took place.

Christian LaCour was reportedly on duty at the mall when the shooting took place.

“He was a really sweet kid,” Ms Smith told ABC. “I’m sad he’s gone.”

On Facebook, Mr LaCour’s grandmother, Sandra Montgomery, described him as a “beautiful soul” with “goals for his future”.

“Please pray for my family,” she wrote. “They are very close and I know this is almost unbearable.”