Shooter targeted Mexicans

Mass killer’s racist post before murdering 22

EL PASO: 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 US.

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 Mr Trump over his incendiary words, blaming Mr Trump for inflaming political and racial tensions throughout the country.

Mr Trump has denied stoking division and violence, contending this week that he “brings people together. Our country is doing incredibly well.”

Authorities said Crusius drove more than 10 hours from his hometown near Dallas to carry out the shooting in the border city of El Paso.

An attorney for the Crusius family, Chris Ayres, said that the rest of the family never heard Patrick Crusius use the kind of racist language posted in the online screed.