20 killed in Texas Walmart shooting
At least 20 people were killed and 26 injured, some critically, in a shooting rampage Saturday at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in what local officials said was being investigated as a potential hate crime.
A suspect, described as a 21-year-old white male from Allen, Texas, was taken into custody without incident, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said at a news conference. He added that authorities would be looking into the shooting as a possible hate crime in addition to exploring capital murder charges.
Although the suspect hasn’t been officially named, law-enforcement officials told The Wall Street Journal that he has been identified as Patrick Crusius of suburban Dallas, a drive of more than nine hours east from El Paso. Chief Allen told reporters that investigators would be scrutinizing an online manifesto purportedly written by the suspect. The anti-immigrant writing described a potential mass shooting as a response to an “invasion of Texas” by Hispanic immigrants, according to a law-enforcement official.
El Paso, a city of 680,000 in western Texas that is more than 80% Hispanic, is near one of the busiest border crossings between the U.S. and Mexico. The Walmart where the shooting occurred is just a few miles from the border.
At a news conference, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was too soon to ascribe a motive to the shooting.
But Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso in Congress, said the document, if verified, was deeply worrisome.
“This is someone who came from outside of our community to do us harm,” she said. “A community that has shown nothing but generosity and kindness to the least among us, those people arriving at America’s front door.”
Officials at hospitals in El Paso said several of the injured were in critical condition.
In a video posted on his Twitter account, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said three Mexicans had been killed in the El Paso shooting. “We send our support and solidarity to the people of the United States and the government of the United States,” he said.
Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s foreign minister wrote on his Twitter account that six Mexicans, including a 10-year-old girl, who was shot in the leg, were among the wounded.
The shooter was able to quickly kill or wound many people due to geography and timing, choosing a sunny Saturday afternoon at a busy shopping center, Chief Allen said. “The capability of the weapon allowed that and then his intent and then the location where he chose was a Walmart,” he said.
The first calls reporting an active shooter came in at 10:39 a.m., and police were on the scene six minutes later, by 10:45 a.m., Chief Allen said. Thousands of people were evacuated from the Walmart and a nearby mall, officials said, and some family members were separated in the chaos.
The suspect used an AK-style semiautomatic rifle, according to an initial investigation, the chief said.
Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, called Saturday “one of the most deadly days in the history of Texas.”
The suspect was taken into custody without incident, Chief Allen said.
A Walmart spokesman said the company was working closely with law enforcement. Saturday’s rampage was the second shooting at a Walmart this week. On Tuesday, in Mississippi, a Walmart employee who had been suspended last weekend shot and killed two other workers in the store, spokesman Randy Hargrove said.
“I can’t believe I’m sending a note like this twice in one week,” Walmart Inc. Chief Executive Doug McMillon said in an Instagram post on Saturday evening. “My heart aches for the community in El Paso, especially the associates and customers at store 2201 and the families of the victims of today’s tragedy. I’m praying for them and I hope you will join me.”
Mr. López Obrador said he knew El Paso as one of the most peaceful cities in the U.S. People in El Paso and the people in the neighboring Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande river, live in “fraternal coexistence,” he said.
On Twitter, President Trump called the shooting “not only tragic, it was an act of cowardice. I know that I stand with everyone in this Country to condemn today’s hateful act. There are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people.” The White House said federal agencies including the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were actively assisting El Paso authorities.
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, a Democratic presidential hopeful, said he has spoken with Mayor Dee Margo, praised the resilience of El Paso residents and said he was heading home to offer his support.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
