DALLAS (AP) -- The shooter who killed eight people at a Dallas-area mall was wearing a patch that read “RWDS” — short for “Right Wing Death Squad” — a phrase that has been embraced in recent years by far-right extremists who glorify violence against their political enemies.
Authorities have not said what they believe might have motivated 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, who was killed by a police officer who happened to be near the mall Saturday when Garcia opened fire.
Social media accounts authorities believe were used by Mauricio Garcia also appear to have expressed interest in white supremacist and neo-Nazi views, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they could not discuss details of the investigation publicly. The official cautioned that the investigation is in the early stages.
The “RWDS” acronym is one of countless shorthand terms used by extremists. Others include “RaHoWa,” short for “racial holy war,” and “1488,” an alphabet-driven code combining references to a white nationalist slogan and Adolf Hitler.
The term “Right Wing Death Squad” originally emerged in the 1970s and ’80s to describe Central and South American paramilitary groups created to support right-wing governments and dictatorships and oppose perceived enemies on the left, said Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.
It reemerged in the 2010s among right-wing groups who use it on stickers, patches and in online forums. Other far-right gear and online memes specifically glorify Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the brutal Chilean military dictator whose death squads killed thousands of political opponents.
“It essentially became a phrase that was co-opted to demonstrate opposition to the left more broadly by right-wing extremists,” Segal said.
Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said the Proud Boys, the neo-fascist group of self-described “Western chauvinists,” are largely responsible for injecting “RWDS” into the far-right vernacular.
The group has sold patches and T-shirts adorned with the acronym and celebrating Pinochet’s death squads. Proud Boys have been photographed wearing “RWDS” patches at rallies and wearing T-shirts that read, “Pinochet did nothing wrong.”
Photos shared on social media appeared to show former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and another former Proud Boys leader, Jeremy Bertino, among those who have worn such patches.