Dallas Stars Head coach Peter DeBoer, whose team is currently in the second round of the NHL playoffs, reacted to the shooting at a Dallas-area mall that left at least eight people dead over the weekend by saying, “Somebody has to have some answers for it.”
“I don’t pretend to know the answer on how to fix it, but it’s too great a country [with] too many intelligent people not to do something about it,” DeBoer said in a pregame press conference Sunday.
The suspected shooter, identified as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, used an assault rifle in the attack that also left at least seven people injured. Graphic photos and videos of the shooting and its aftermath circulated online, sparking an emotional reaction on social media platforms.
DeBoer, a Canadian, made the comments on the shooting before his team’s second-round road game against the Seattle Kraken. Dallas lost 7-2, but DeBoer said before the puck even dropped that it was hard to focus on the contest.
“It’s tough to think about games when you wake up to headlines like that,” DeBoer said. “We shop there. … I don’t have the words for it. There has to be some answers. Somebody has to have some answers for it.”
After the shooting, the Stars canceled the watch party they had planned for outside their Dallas arena.
DeBoer is not the first Texas professional sports coach to speak out after mass shootings in the state. Legendary San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, a five-time NBA champion, has frequently criticized public officials at the federal level and in Texas for failing to address gun violence.
Other Dallas and Texas professional sports franchises, such as the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and MLB’s Texas Rangers, responded to the shooting with social media posts and moments of silence before games.