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The white gunman who killed 23 people in the attack on Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in the city of El Paso, in the southern state of Texas, was sentenced Friday to 90 consecutive life sentences, but could still face more punishments, including the death penalty.
First modification:
A federal judge sentenced the perpetrator of the mass shooting that killed 23 people and wounded 22 others at a Texas Walmart in one of the deadliest attacks against Latinos in modern US history to 90 life sentences.
The sentence handed down by federal judge David Guaderrama on Friday, July 7, in the Texas city of El Paso adheres to a February plea agreement in which shooter Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty and accepted 90 life sentences. consecutive sentences to avoid the federal death penalty.
Included in the guilty plea were 45 counts of hate crime violation and 45 counts of use of a firearm during a violent crime.
Patrick Crusius did not speak in court and showed no reaction when the sentence was read.
His attorney, Joe Spencer, made a statement for him saying the shooter suffered from mental illness that led him to carry out the shooting. “Patrick acted with his brain broken and rooted in delusions,” Spencer said.
Prosecutors disputed that claim, saying Crusius knew what he was doing when he carried out the massacre.
An attack against the “Hispanic invasion” of the United States
On August 3, 2019, Crusius, then 21, visited an El Paso Walmart store without carrying a weapon. He then returned, equipped with ear protectors, plastic eye glasses, and a semi-automatic rifle, with which he fired indiscriminately.
After turning himself in to authorities that same day and identifying himself as the perpetrator, he told investigators that he had chosen the Walmart store for his attack because it is close to the border with Mexico and because it is frequented by Hispanic customers, according to trial documents.
According to police, Crusius drove more than 700 miles from his home near Dallas to attack Latinos. Moments before the attack began, he posted a manifesto online complaining of “cultural and ethnic substitution” and a “Hispanic invasion” of the United States.
The people killed ranged in age from a 15-year-old high school athlete to several elderly grandparents. They included immigrants, a retired city bus driver, teachers, merchants, including a former iron worker, and several Mexican citizens who had crossed the US border on routine shopping trips.
“We’re still here and we’re not going anywhere”
The sentence in El Paso was handed down after two days of statements from 36 relatives of the deceased and survivors of the massacre. One by one, they took their first opportunity since the shooting to speak directly to Crusius, describing how their lives have been upended by grief and pain.
Amaris Vega’s aunt was killed in the attack and her mother narrowly survived a softball-sized chest wound. At trial, Vega criticized Crusius’s “pathetic and pitiful manifesto,” which promised to rid Texas of Hispanics.
“But guess what? You didn’t make it. You failed,” he told her in court on Thursday. “We’re still here and we’re not going anywhere. And for four years you’ve been stuck in a city full of Hispanics. … So let that sink in.”
Margaret Juárez, whose 90-year-old father was killed in the attack and whose mother was injured but survived, said she found it ironic that Crusius would spend his life in prison among racial and ethnic minority inmates. Others in the room applauded as she celebrated her freedom.
“Swim in jail waters,” he told Crusius. “Now we are going to enjoy the sun. (…) We still have our freedom, in our country.”
Texas prosecutors to seek capital punishment
Margaret Leachman, the first assistant US attorney for the Western District of Texas who prosecuted the case, said in a written statement that she hopes the families of the victims will find “some finality and peace” with the sentence.
“The Office of the Western District of Texas will continue to vigorously pursue those who commit violent acts out of bias or hate, seeking justice on behalf of the victims and their loved ones,” Leachman stated.
Patrick Crusius still faces another trial in a Texas state court, which could end with his death sentence for carrying out this mass shooting.
“We’re still going to prosecute the Walmart shooter. And we’re still going to seek the death penalty,” said El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks, who nonetheless acknowledged that the jury will decide the fate of the defendant.
Hicks said he doesn’t know when the state trial will start, but said it will be sometime in 2024 or 2025.
With AP, Reuters and EFE
