A North Texas business owner is now mourning colleague Aishwarya Thatikonda, who was among the eight people killed Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets.
On Monday afternoon, the Texas Department of Public Safety released the names of the eight people who were shot and killed on Saturday when a gunman opened fire at the Allen Premium Outlet Mall.
News began to spread on Sunday that 26-year-old Aishwarya Thatikonda was among the victims.
Originally from India, those who knew Thatikonda said she was passionate about making North Texas her permanent home to raise a family, buy a house, and make a living in the U.S. That dream was shattered on Saturday.
"She's a lot more than an employee. No less than a daughter. My feelings about the incident were very unfortunate. Never imagined," said Srinivas Chaluvadi, owner of Perfect General Contractors in Frisco.
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Flowers from friends and colleagues covered her desk, which she would have been sitting at on Monday morning.
Chaluvadi hired Thatikonda more than two-and-half-years ago after she finished her master's in civil engineering in the U.S. She managed construction projects at the company and was very good at her job, said Chaluvadi.
“She enriched the company with all of her commitment," said Chaluvadi who said one of his final conversations with her was discussing his plans to prepare Thatikonda to become the CEO of the company one day.
"Aishwarya is a very well-brought-up girl. She is one of the most ethical, most responsible persons I have seen in my business in this country," he continued.
"She is loved, respected, and adored by at least 150 people that I can count. She works very closely with the city staff in the town of Little Elm, the City of Frisco, the town of Aubrey, and all the towns and cities where we work. She's the one who handles the staff requests for documentation inspections and she knows everyone and everyone knows her by name," said Chaluvadi.
He said over the years she had become more like a daughter to him. Because she didn't have any family here, Chaluvadi said she became part of his family.
"There's quite a bit of bonding for eight hours every day for three years, seeing each other face-to-face and nobody else so I kind of miss her if I don't see her for two, three days," said Chaluvadi as he began to fight back tears as the reality of the situation started to set in at that moment.
"I WAS PRAYING FOR NOTHING TO HAPPEN, BUT INSIDE OF MY MIND I WAS FEARFUL OF SOMETHING WRONG"
Chaluvadi said on Saturday he was returning to DFW after celebrating his mother's 80th birthday in Pittsburgh. He spoke with Thatikonda in the morning in regard to a project site and meeting up with an architect at 5 p.m.
He said when his plane landed, he received a call from the architect who said Thatikonda was not there, which was not like her. So Chaluvadi rushed over to the construction site. He had seen the updates about the shooting in Allen and thought maybe the traffic is what kept her.
"We did not suspect anything at the time," said Chaluvadi.
Reflecting on their conversation, he said he remembered Thatikonda was going to the outlets to buy an outfit for her 27th birthday, which was coming up on May 18.
It was going to be a big one because it was more than just about her trip around the sun, it was about her finishing a commercial building project she had worked on for more than a year.
"I told her that we will have a grand birthday celebration for her and I promised her to buy a new pair of clothes and all those things. So I told her that, so it suddenly struck into my mind that she must have gone to the shopping mall to make some purchases," said Chaluvadi.
He then started to connect the dots. He went by her apartment where her roommates said social media posts showed that Thatikonda and a friend were at the mall in the mid-afternoon. He said after 9:30 p.m., they would learn that her friend was in the hospital, and he was initially in critical condition, being treated for three bullet wounds.
Chaluvadi said he and his son were running all kinds of theories on where she could be, but then logic started to kick in and that's when Chaluvadi and others began to think of the unthinkable after hours went by without any communication from Thatikonda.
"The Collin County Medical Examiner's Office told us that FBI had to come in and do fingerprint matching to be able to confirm the identity of the deceased person," he said. "It was a long 24-hour wait for us to know the worst part."
Thatikonda, who is originally from Hyderabad India, was killed.
"The shooter got out of his car, got his gun, she is on the straight line. She and her friend, who is next to her, she was the first to get the bullets," said Chaluvadi who had seen the images and videos circulating on international news channels. "He (a good Samaritan) found her body in the bushes, face covered, that is exactly what we saw on the AlJazzera TV. So when she heard the gunshots, she put her handbag to cover her face and bend down, she must have gotten the gunshot, the gunshot defaced her body which is why the medical examiner could not validate her identity."
Thatikonda's mother and father, who is a district judge in India, found out about the news thousands of miles away.
"The grief of her parents, it is indescribable," explained Chaluvadi who is close with the family and spoke with Thatikonda's parents.
He said they are trying to 'expeditiously' ship the 26-year-old's body back home to India. They believe that may be a better route than having the family fly here since obtaining visas and other documents to enter the U.S. is not a quick process.
“This is the most intense grief I had since my father’s death," reflected Chaluvadi. "I just wish the world will be a little better place, and if Aishwarya is the cause for such a small change, that would make her life well lived."
PART OF THATIKONDA'S LEGACY WILL BE HER LAST PROJECT
The 26-year-old was described as a go-getter, someone who was disciplined, responsible, and made sure to get tasks done.
She had been working on a new office building behind their building which has a beautiful detention pond with a fountain and picnic tables around it.
They were almost finished.
"If every single punch list of the project is completed if, and only if, she would want to celebrate her birthday," said Chaluvadi. "I said, 'Don't worry, it will get done. We are there. We are not too far. We have just one step away."
That one step was the crosswalk and having it stripped. He said Thatikonda knew rain was in the forecast, so she pleaded with a vendor to get the work done over the weekend.
"She was fearful of getting the parking lot striping guys backlogged with the work, so she requested, I know she begged our very good friend," explained Chaluvadi.
Sure enough, it was done on Saturday, but Thatikonda would never get to see the completion of it.
"She was getting killed there and somebody was attending to her final task of getting the project completed. The thought is very heartbreaking," said Chaluvadi as he fought back tears.
His son also echoed how much Thatikonda became part of the family.
"The most I miss about her is the very pleasant personality," said Krishna Chaluvadi, Srinivas son and a colleague of Thatikonda. "She could make complex situations seem easy, was level-headed, composed, and had a calming influence. So losing an employee like that with all those attributes and also somebody that was so near and dear to our family was very heartbreaking."
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.
