Police: El Paso shooting suspect said he targeted Mexicans
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The man accused of carrying out last weekend’s deadly mass shooting at a Walmart in the Texas border city of El Paso confessed to officers while he was surrendering and later explained that he had been targeting Mexicans, authorities say.
Patrick Crusius, 21, emerged with his hands up from a vehicle that was stopped at an intersection shortly after last Saturday’s attack and told officers, “I’m the shooter,” Detective Adrian Garcia said in an arrest warrant affidavit.
Crusius later waived his Miranda rights and agreed to speak with detectives, telling them he entered the store with an AK-47 assault rifle and multiple magazines, and that he was targeting Mexicans.
Twenty-two people were killed and about two dozen were injured. Most of the dead had Hispanic last names and eight were Mexican nationals.
Authorities believe that shortly before the attack, Crusius posted a racist screed online that railed against an influx of Hispanics into the U.S. The document parrots some of President Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric about immigration, but the writer said his views predate Trump’s rise and that any attempt to blame the president for his actions was “fake news.”
Many El Paso residents, protesters and Democrats have blasted Trump over his incendiary words, blaming Trump for inflaming political and racial tensions throughout the country. Trump has denied stoking division and violence, contending this week that he “brings people together. Our country is doing incredibly well.”
Authorities say Crusius drove more than 10 hours from his hometown near Dallas to carry out the shooting in the largely Latino border city of El Paso. An attorney for the Crusius family, Chris Ayres, told The Associated Press that the rest of the family never heard Patrick Crusius use the kind of racist and anti-immigrant language that was posted in the online screed.
Crusius has been charged with capital murder and is being held without bond. Federal prosecutors have said they are also considering hate-crime charges.
The attack came hours before another mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, in which nine people were killed. The dual shootings killed 31 people in all wounded dozens more, reignited calls for Congress to take immediate action to reduce gun violence.
Trump said Friday that he believes he has influence to rally Republicans around stronger federal background check laws. But at the same time, Trump said he had assured the National Rifle Association that its gun rights views would be “fully represented and respected.”
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Well, it's official.
I wonder what QAnon says.
This should signal the end of Trump, who clearly has inspired right wing violence. Is America really going to tolerate this?
Where are the moderates?
Quit saying that all those homegrown white nationalist domestic terrorists who are committing so many mass atrocities are crazy! These were all planned premeditated murders. What besides calculated plans could explain how all those killers accumulate their "Waco Sized" hoards of guns and ammo in preparation for their murderous killing sprees other than planned calculated premeditation? Maybe racism and xenophobia and hate do indicate mental illness. Try telling that to all the murderers on American death rows already. After all, they were probably not motivated by hate either. Or, were they all just sick little unloved puppies, too?
Wake up America! Call it what it is! Our problem now is not with immigrants. The wretched troubles tearing America asunder today are the result of homegrown rightwing white nationalist domestic terrorism...
So strange, I know there is a person out there who is well known, and holds the highest office in the land that hates Mexicans too... Just can't put my finger on who it is.
Trump started bashing Mexicans the same day he announced he was running for president and I mean, LITERALLY, the same day. And for the last three years, he has kept it up. Words do have consequences and for trump to accept zero blame in the El Paso shooting only further proves what a low life POS he really is. A pathetic worthless human being who literally never accepts blame for anything, ever, no matter what. Even after he 'apologized' about the access hollywood tapes, he tried to walk it back and say it wasn't really him.
Trump= douchebag.
I'll wait for you to provide the proof of that.
Trump offers the proof with his hate.
So... you got nothing. You could have just said that.
Sounds like it wasn't the gun targeting people. The shooter was. But don't let that little fact deter everybody's fear of inanimate objects.
So if people are the problem, and it's not the guns, why would you want to give, "the problem", guns in the first place?
And where did I say that? But now that you mention it. You actually think stricter firearms legislation will be a fix? Remember, Chicago has some of the most strictest firearms laws on the books and a high firearm murder rate.
And over 90% of those guns are purchased out of state. But yea, when ya got nothing, deflect.
Pathetic.
Then why isn't the murder rate in those areas as high?