Ask those who knew Aishwarya Thatikonda and they'll tell you, the 26-year-old was building a bright future. Thatikonda came to Dallas to work as an engineer a little over two years ago.
Saturday, she and a friend went to the Allen Premium Outlets as an early birthday celebration. She would have turned 27 next week.
Instead, her body is being taken to her parents in India after a gunman opened fire, killing eight and injuring several others.
"The community is in shock. We're all grieving,” said Ashok Kolla.
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Kolla, a leader for TANA, the Teluga Association of North America, said the nonprofit is now assisting Thatikonda’s family.
“For most of us, including me when I first came here, we always thought the U.S. is the land of opportunity, the land to go to for a better future. Something like this is making us rethink it a little bit,” he said.
It's a similar sentiment shared by Santos Cumana, whose son Elio Cumana-Rivas was among the victims.
"There are conversations that say Venezuela is not safe. Then you come to the United States and you're killed in a mall by a crazy person with a gun,” said Cumana.
Just a day before the shooting, Cumana said that his son sent him a video showing him working as a delivery driver.
He said the 32-year-old had an 11-year-old daughter back in Venezuela and was saving for a better future.
“I think we hope this is the last incident. We don't want to see anymore,” said Kolla.
Kolla said within the local Indian community, gun violence is rarely discussed.
But now as they mourn Thatikonda and watch for signs of improvement from her friend who remains hospitalized at Medical City McKinney, Kolla said he’s encouraging international students and others within the community to keep a close eye on their surroundings.
And after it took nearly 24 hours for friends to get word of Thatikonda’s death, he’s also encouraging them to always have an emergency contact on them or clearly labeled in their phones.
“Personally, I'm broken. My heart is broken,” 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.
