In a tragic US mass shooting incident, an Indian woman was among nine who were killed at a crowded mall in Dallas in the US state of Texas on Saturday. According to news agency PTI, Aishwarya Thatikonda, 27, hailing from Hyderabad was working in Texas as a project engineer, a friend of the judge told media persons on Monday.
She was the daughter of a district judge in Ranga Reddy district court. Aishwarya did her civil engineering from a college in the city and completed her masters in the US after which she had been working there for more than two years.
Victim had spoken to family on the incident day
Aishwarya had spoken to her family members before the incident on Saturday, and when they called her back after learning about the shooting they did not get any response, according to the judge's friend.
"The family got the information about (her death) on Sunday. They are in shock. They have been told that efforts were being made to send her body by Wednesday," the judge's friend said.
Aishwarya was shopping with a friend when they were shot by the gunman at the Allen Premium Outlets in Dallas, the New York Post newspaper reported.
The shooting erupted around 3.30 PM on Saturday as throngs of shoppers filled the outdoor mall. The 33-year-old gunman was shot dead by a police officer, the report said.
Mass shootings in US surged in past few years
Notably, the country has witnessed a surge in mass killing in the past few years. According to reports, the US is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023, replaying the horror on a loop roughly once a week so far this year. The carnage has taken 88 lives in 17 mass killings over 111 days. Each time, the killers wielded firearms. Only 2009 was marked by as many such tragedies in the same period of time.
Gruesome records have been set within the last decade. The data shows a high of 45 mass killings in 2019 and 230 people slain in such tragedies in 2017. That year, 60 people died when a gunman opened fire over an outdoor country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. The massacre still accounts for the most fatalities from a mass shooting in modern America.
(With inputs from PTI)
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