El Paso leaders say love will triumph over hatred
Thousands attend a memorial in a baseball stadium
EL PASO, Texas — Leaders from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border told thousands of people gathered in a baseball stadium in El Paso Wednesday that love will triumph over hatred in the wake of a mass shooting by a man who authorities believe targeted Mexicans at a Walmart store in the Texas border city.
People lined up hours before the memorial and packed the stadium in downtown El Paso that could hold about 8,000.
Nine circles and 22 stars formed by luminarias — traditional lanterns made from paper bags, sand and LED lights — adorned the field in honor of the nine people killed in the Dayton, Ohio, mass shooting and the 22 El Paso shooting victims.
The ceremony at Southwest University Park officially commemorated those killed in the largely Latino city by a gunman who police say confessed to driving from the Dallas area to stage the attack. Most of the dead had Hispanic last names and eight were Mexican nationals. Nearly two dozen others were injured.
“Hate will never overcome our love. Hate will never overcome who we are,” El Paso Mayor Dee Margo said.
“We are a bilingual family,” he said. “We are successful because of our people. There is nowhere in North America like El Paso-Juárez.”
El Paso is just across the border from the Mexican city of Juárez and some of those shot at Walmart were Mexicans who had crossed to El Paso to shop.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott received a huge round of applause from the crowd in the predominantly Democratic city when he said that he would “dismantle the purveyors of hate.”
Earlier in the day, Abbott announced that the state would add manpower to gang investigations of white nationalist groups in the wake of the shooting. He also said Texas would create a new domestic terrorism unit to help “root out the extremist ideologies that fuel hatred and violence in our state.”
One section of the stadium was reserved for Walmart employees, among them Rosa Fernandez, 65, an El Paso native. Fernandez heard the shots, but did not see the shooter.
“I remember the shots outside in the parking lot,” she said in a mix of Spanish and English. “Seeing the people scattered dead on the ground.”
Authorities said Wednesday they have finished processing the scene at Walmart for evidence.