‘End the scourge of gun violence’: Community leaders remember Allen shooting victims
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Shooting in Allen, Texas
Here’s everything we know about the May 6, 2023 mass shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets mall.
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Several hundred people held candles and said prayers at a vigil Monday night, nine days after a gunman opened fire on shoppers at an outlet mall in Allen.
Fifteen groups — including the Dallas Asian American Historical Society; Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation; SAAVETX Education Fund; Asian Texans for Justice; Remembering Black Dallas; Rise AAPI and Somos Tejas — coordinated the vigil in honor of the eight victims who died in the shooting: Cindy, Kyu and James Cho, Daniela and Sofia Mendoza, Aishwarya Thatikonda, Christian LaCour and Elio Cumana-Rivas.
More than a dozen people spoke at the vigil inside the Oak Lawn United Methodist Church in Dallas. A 15-year-old Allen student read a poem in which she begged for “the adults” to “keep me and my friends safe.” Ramiro Luna with Somos Tejas listed off the mass shootings that have involved an AR-15. The Turtle Creek Chorale, a Dallas men’s choir, performed “If I Can Dream” by Elvis Presley.
Erika L. Moritsugu, deputy assistant to the president and Asian American and Pacific Islander senior liaison, spoke on behalf of the White House. She said President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris sent their condolences and are dedicated to “end the scourge of gun violence.” Moritsugu read a statement from Harris aloud in which Harris said she will “fight alongside you to protect families” and to “keep dangerous weapons out of dangerous hands.”
Several speakers addressed the shooter’s white supremacist ideals. Earlier Monday, several groups that coordinated the vigil held a press conference and demanded law enforcement thoroughly investigate the shooting as a hate crime.
At the vigil, some speakers demanded that the Texas Legislature take action on gun reform. Mohammed Farshori, vice chair of the Asian Chamber of Texas, said elected officials “are no longer able to serve the public or serve our interests” and called on people to vote in order to make those officials “irrelevant.” Luna with Somos Tejas said legislators have “blood on their hands” if they do not propose gun reform.
Nearly every speaker referenced the fact that they were echoing words that have been said at countless vigils held for countless other shootings across the country. The calls for change, several noted, have been made after nearly every mass shooting, and still the violence continues.
“How did we get to this place?” Beverly Davis, vice president of Remembering Black Dallas, asked the congregation. “Where we call ourselves the greatest democracy that’s ever existed, and yet we cannot protect the most innocent among us?”
This story was originally published May 15, 2023 at 11:51 PM.
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