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El Paso Walmart shooting: what we know
A suspect is in custody after at least 22 people were killed and 27 more were wounded.
A shooter killed at least 22 people and injured at least 27 others at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday.
A suspect, a 21-year-old man, is in custody. Officials are investigating whether the attack was motivated by racist views; investigators believe that the suspect posted a manifesto online in which he suggested Latin immigrants were overrunning America.
The shooting began in the morning, around 11 am local time. Police responded to the scene, eventually capturing the suspect. Surrounding businesses were evacuated. By 3 pm, police said threat was over.
The story is still developing. Here’s what we know, and don’t, so far.
What we know
- Around 11 am local time, a shooter in the Walmart opened fire, killing at least 22 people and injuring at least 27 others, officials said.
- Officials have not identified all the dead yet, but the New York Times published a list of some of the victims and their backgrounds. Thirteen were US citizens, seven Mexican citizens, one German, and one undetermined.
- The deaths of Mexican citizens led Mexican officials to demand protections for Mexican citizens and Mexican Americans in the US.
- The suspect is 21-year-old Patrick Crusius from Allen, Texas, according to CNN. Officials believe he posted a racist, xenophobic manifesto online, and are investigating the shooting as a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism.
- The Walmart is part of a broader business area in the border city’s east side. Many parents were at the store, with their kids, for back-to-school shopping. Other businesses in the mall were placed on lockdown.
- President Donald Trump responded to the El Paso shooting, along with an unrelated shooting in Dayton, Ohio, in a brief speech on Monday. He mostly pointed to cultural issues and mental illness, although he did throw in support for a red flag law that could let police or courts seize guns from dangerous people. (The empirical research suggests that access to guns is the core problem.)
- Activists and Democrats, meanwhile, have called for federal action on guns, hoping to get the Republican-controlled Senate to move on legislation passed by the Democratic-held House.
- Trump is expected to visit El Paso this week, Mayor Dee Margo said.
- So far in 2019, there have been more than 250 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The organization defines mass shootings as events in which four or more people, excluding the shooter, were shot but not necessarily killed in a similar time and place.
What we don’t know
- The identities of all the victims
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