Texas mall shooting: Boy, 6, orphaned after entire family slaughtered
The family had celebrated William's birthday only days earlier before they were killed by the gunman.
A young boy is the only surviving family member of a mass shooting that claimed the lives of his parents, younger brother and five others after a gunman opened fire at a US shopping mall over the weekend.
On Saturday, the Cho family visited a shopping mall in Allen, Texas and had recently celebrated William's 6th birthday when the 200th mass shooting the US has experienced this year erupted.
William's parents, Cindy and Kyu, as well as his three-year-old brother James were killed at the scene. In a news conference the city's Chief of Police Brian E. Harvey said the gunman was killed by an on-duty police officer who was present at the shopping mall attending an unrelated matter, The New York Times reports.
William was rushed to a nearby hospital and has since recovered from his injuries and been discharged, as a GoFundMe page created in his family's honour surpasses $1 million worth of donations.
Second deadliest US mass shooting of 2023
It has been reported Saturday's incident is one of the deadliest shootings the country has faced this year, second only to the shooting which ended with 11 victims being killed in a ballroom in California in January.
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Footage of the Allen shooting began to circulate online over the weekend, with the video showing many shoppers frantically fleeing the mall as several rounds of ammunition and screams can be heard from inside.
#BREAKING: Shots fired at shopping mall in Allen, Texashttps://t.co/8upaByxZOI
— I.E.N. (@BreakingIEN) May 6, 2023
Since the shooting in Allen, there has already been six more mass shootings recorded in the US, which the Gun Violence Archive defines as a shooting of four people or more.
The gunman has now be identified as Mauricio Garcia, 33, with authorities investigating his motives.
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