El Paso Walmart to reopen, retailer says

EL PASO, Texas — Walmart plans to reopen the El Paso store where 22 people were killed in a mass shooting earlier this month, the retail giant said Thursday, but the entire interior of the building will first be rebuilt.

The renovated store will include an on-site memorial honoring the victims of the shooting, many of whom were Hispanic, and recognizing the “binational relationship between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez” just across the border in Mexico, Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove said. The project is expected to take three to four months.

Nearly all of the 400 employees at the El Paso store have been reassigned to other nearby locations, Hargrove said, and the Arkansas-based company believes reopening the store is “an important step in healing from this tragedy.”

“Nothing will erase the pain of Aug. 3 and we’re hopeful that reopening the store will be another testament to the strength and resiliency that has characterized the El Paso community in the wake of this tragedy,” Hargrove said.

Many shoppers from Ciudad Juarez went there because it is the closest Walmart to the four border bridges that connect to El Paso. Eight of the people killed in the shooting were Mexican citizens.

Authorities took more than 10 days to finish processing evidence before returning control of the property to Walmart.

Police said the suspected gunman, Patrick Crusius, confessed to targeting Mexicans in the attack. Crusius has been on a suicide watch in an El Paso jail since Aug. 7, according to El Paso County Sheriff’s office spokesman Chris Acosta. Prosecutor Jaime Esparza has said he will seek the death penalty. The Department of Justice, which is investigating the shooting as domestic terrorism, has said it will bring federal capital murder charges.