A North Texas community hosted a candlelight vigil this week in honor of the eight victims killed in the Allen mass shooting on May 6.
At a Little Elm park on Thursday night, eight white chairs were adorned with flowers and photos of the eight people killed at Allen Premium Outlets: Cindy Cho, Kyu Cho, James Cho, Daniela Mendoza, Sofia Mendoza, Aishwarya Thatikonda, Christian LaCour, and Elio Cumana-Rivas.
The vigil was organized by the India Association of North Texas, though dozens of organizations contributed and attended.
“The community’s very hurt. They don’t feel safe anymore,” said Ashok Dandekar, president of the Chinmaya Mission, Dallas-Fort Worth chapter. “That doesn’t feel right, because Texas is a great state. We all move here for a reason. To have a safe, secure family life and such things happen in our neighborhood.”
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Dandekar said he didn’t know any of the eight victims personally, though he knows people who knew Aishwarya Thatikonda. The 26-year-old, originally from India, lived in McKinney and worked as an engineer.
Brahmachari Hari Chaitanya with the Chinmaya Mission grew up in Allen and lived about a mile from the mall where the shooting happened.
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“The impact, anywhere in the world when this happens, is very tragic and sad. When it hits so close to home, it hurts a lot more,” Chaitanya said.
The community is still processing the grief, he said.
“It’s a very close-knit community, especially a community that’s very faith-based like ours. Everyone knows someone who knows one of the victims,” he said.
Deepen Patel, who spoke at the vigil Thursday night, said his wife almost went to the mall on the day of the shooting. Their son was there hours before, and he recalled trying to get in touch with him once news broke of the tragic event.
“What I went through, that’s nothing compared to these families and what they’re going through today. This is not new to us. We’ve seen this happen,” Patel said.
Grief is shared in this community right now, but Chaitanya said support is also being offered to one another.
“Let us not lose faith that there is humanity and goodness out there. In these kinds of moments, it’s so easy to doubt there is divinity and there is goodness in the world. But there is,” he said.
With the outpouring of support for the victims of the mass shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets, GoFundMe has launched a centralized hub for all verified fundraisers related to the shooting. The online fundraising platform said it was working around the clock to make sure that all funds donated go directly to survivors or the families of victims.
