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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Suspected El Paso Gunman Told Police He Targeted Mexicans

The suspect in last weekend’s deadly mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart told police after confessing to the crime that he had targeted “Mexicans,” according to an arrest affidavit.

(CN) – The suspect in last weekend’s deadly mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart told police after confessing to the crime that he had targeted “Mexicans,” according to an arrest affidavit.

The document, first obtained by the Washington Post, sheds new light on the moment 21-year-old Patrick Crusius surrendered to police after allegedly murdering 22 people and injuring more than two dozen others in an attack that appeared specifically designed to terrorize Latinos.

Officers responding to the scene on Saturday spotted the suspect’s car at an intersection behind the Walmart, El Paso police detective Adrian Garcia wrote in the affidavit.

Garcia said Crusius then got out of the car with his hands in the air and told police, “I’m the shooter.”

According to the affidavit, the suspected gunman waived his Miranda rights after being taken to police headquarters and agreed to talk, telling police he had driven from Allen, Texas, to carry out the attack, and that his targets were “Mexicans.”

“The defendant stated once inside the store he opened fire using his AK-47 shooting multiple innocent victims,” the affidavit states.

Authorities believe the suspect is the author of a racist manifesto that was posted online just before the attack denouncing the growing Hispanic population in Texas.

Crusius faces a capital murder charge in Texas and is being held at the county jail in downtown El Paso after being denied bond. Federal prosecutors have said they are considering hate crime charges as well.

Just 13 hours after the bloodshed in El Paso, a second lone gunman opened fire in a popular downtown entertainment district in Dayton, Ohio, early Sunday morning. Nine people were killed before the shooter, who was wearing a mask and bulletproof vest, was fatally shot by police.

President Donald Trump was greeted by protesters Wednesday on visits to Dayton and El Paso, with some blaming his rhetoric toward immigrants for the Texas shooting in particular.

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