A Texas man pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal hate crimes and weapons charges in a racist attack at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 that prosecutors say warned of a “Hispanic invasion” before the gunman posted an online screed Went.
Patrick Crusius, 24, showed little emotion as he was wheeled in chains in an El Paso courtroom just a few miles from the store where he was accused of killing 23 people, including Mexican citizens, in one of the deadliest murders in US history. One of the worst mass shootings ever.
Sentencing is not scheduled until later this year, but the US government previously announced it would not seek the death penalty. Crucius waived most of his rights to appeal a total of 90 federal charges, which US District Judge David Guadarrama said would each carry a life sentence.
“I plead guilty,” he said.
Crusius originally pleaded not guilty, before federal prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. He could still receive the death penalty, however, under separate state capital murder charges in Texas, though it’s unclear when that case might come to trial.
Albert Hernandez, whose sister and brother-in-law were killed in the attack, was one of about 40 people with close ties to the victims in the courtroom’s gallery. He called Crusius a coward who was trying to “save his own skin” by pleading guilty in federal court.
“This man knew what he was doing. It was premeditated,” Hernandez said of the shooting. “He came here to take care of business.”
Crucius surrendered to police after the massacre, saying, “I am the shooter,” and according to court records, he was targeting Mexicans. Prosecutors have said he drove more than 10 hours from his hometown near Dallas to the largely Latino border town and published a document online shortly before the shooting that said it was part of “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” was in response.”
The August 3, 2019, shooting occurred on a busy weekend at Walmart, which is typically popular with shoppers from Mexico and the US. In addition to those killed, more than two dozen were injured and hundreds more were injured by attending or being held. Loved one got hurt.
Prosecutors presented a detailed description of the attack during Wednesday’s plea hearing, describing how a pedestrian was shot in the parking lot before Crucius, who was wearing earmuffs that muted the sound of gunfire , opened fire on people at a fundraiser for a football team.
As Crusius went inside the store, prosecutors said, nine people were surrounded and shot to death at a bank near the entrance. Among them were husband and wife Jordan and Andre Anchondo, whose newborn son suffered broken bones in his hand.
It is also where Margie Rickard was gunned down — whose August 2019 funeral drew thousands of sympathizers from as far away as California and across the border into Mexico — after her husband announced That he was alone and had almost no family left and invited the world to participate.
According to the prosecution, Crusius continued the killing spree after dropping his assault rifle into several corridors. Leaving the Walmart, he opened fire on a passing car, killing the older man and injuring his wife.
Former El Paso Mayor De Margo attended the hearing of the petition and called it “gut-wrenching”.
“We have an evil white supremacist who showed up and attacked us for who we are,” he said.
After the hearing, defense attorney Joe Spencer said Crusius wanted to accept responsibility. “There are no winners in this case,” he said.
Prosecutors say Crucius consented on August 3 after surrendering two videotaped interviews with detectives and the FBI and providing two thumb drives that contained his racist writings and other records.
Crusius’s writings prior to the shooting echoed both the anti-immigration rhetoric of American politics and the racist screeds employed by other mass shooters in the US and abroad.
More than three years after the shooting, US politics continues to describe the “invasion” at the US-Mexico border. Critics have denounced the characterization as anti-immigrant and dangerous in the aftermath of the El Paso and other racially motivated attacks.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, recently used the word “invasion” when authorizing a series of hardline immigration measures. In November, Abbott sent a letter to the state police and the Texas National Guard with the subject line “Defend Texas Against Invasion”.
Abbott has defended his statements by saying that he was using language contained in the US Constitution. Some legal scholars have called this a misinterpretation of the clause.
“If this isn’t an invasion, what is?” Abbott asked CNN’s Jake Tapper during an interview last month. “Think of the amount of people coming across the border.”
America’s Voice, an immigration reform group, said it tracked more than 80 Republican candidates during last year’s midterm elections, which amplified “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracies.
“I think it’s been creeping up for years,” said Zachary Mueller, political director of America’s Voice. “What I would say is that in 2021, there was a marked shift where it went from the fringes of the Republican Party to the mainstream of the Republican Party.”
A database of mass killings in the US since 2006 compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows that the number of fatal mass shootings linked to hate crimes has increased in recent years. Of the 13 major incidents, the 2019 Walmart shooting was the deadliest. Database tracks every mass murder – since 2006 – in the U.S. defined as four dead in the U.S., not including the perpetrator.