El Paso mass shooter facing ‘hate’ charges
Manifesto attributed to the suspect said the Aug. 3 killings were aimed at scaring Hispanics into leaving the United States.
WASHINGTON — The man accused of killing 22 people and wounding two dozen more in a shooting that targeted Mexicans in the border city of El Paso, Texas, has been charged with federal hate crimes, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Federal prosecutors were expected to announce multiple charges against the suspected gunman, Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas, later Thursday at a news conference in El Paso, according to the person, who had direct knowledge of the case but was not authorized to disclose details of the indictment before the official announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A manifesto attributed to the suspect in the Aug. 3 shooting, during a busy back-toschool shopping day, said the attack was aimed at scaring Hispanics into leaving the United States.
The shooting happened at a time when immigration officials were trying to manage a crush of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and there was political battle over their treatment. El Paso was the epicenter of the influx. President Donald Trump has made cracking down on immigration a hallmark of his administration and the polarizing topic makes headlines around the world.
Eight Mexican nationals were among the victims of the attack at a Walmart store popular with shoppers in nearby Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, just on the other side of the Rio Grande from El Paso.
David Lane, a Colorado-based lawyer representing Crusius in the federal case, said Thursday that he has not yet seen the indictment but hopes federal prosecutors don’t to seek his client’s execution.
“Part of the evolution of our society involves understanding that justice is not synonymous with vengeance, because vengeance disregards the essential humanity in all of us and brutalizes us all,” Lane said. “Part of my job here is to hopefully convince the Department of Justice that they are not the department of vengeance.”
Crusius, 21, is facing the death penalty on a state capital murder charge. He pleaded not guilty last year.
The federal indictment comes as El Paso marks the six-month anniversary of the shooting. Last weekend, the commuter town of San Elizario planted 22 oak trees in honor of the victims.
The federal charge follows Crusius’ state indictment on a capital murder charge, which could also bring a death sentence. He has been held without bond and kept isolated from other prisoners, on suicide watch for at least two months after the shooting.
Crusius surrendered to police after the attack, saying, “I’m the shooter,” and that he was targeting Mexicans, according to an arrest warrant. Prosecutors said Crusius post a screed online shortly before the shooting that said it was “in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” It cited, as inspiration, a mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed scores of Muslim residents of that country.
The document parroted some of Trump’s immigration policy rhetoric. El Paso residents such as former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a former Democratic presidential candidate, accused Trump of promoting harmful stereotypes and fueling the idea that the increase in migrant crossings was a coordinated “invasion” by Latinos. Trump has denied inciting violence.
Crusius drove more than 10 hours from his grandparents’ house in a Dallas suburb to El Paso to carry out the attack, according to police.
The new charges are the latest by federal prosecutors following high-profile violent incidents. The Justice Department has brought federal hate crimes charges against a man in a Hanukkah machete attack in New York in December that wounded five people; a man who opened fire at a Pittsburgh synagogue in last year; and a man who killed a woman when he drove into a crowd of protesters at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.