Suspect in Texas Walmart shooting pleads guilty to federal charges

EL PASO, TX (AP) — A Texas man pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges charging him with killing nearly two dozen people in a racist attack on a Walmart in El Paso, changing his statement weeks after the government The US has said it will not seek the death penalty for hate crimes and violations of firearms regulations.

Patrick Crusius still faces a potential death sentence if convicted on state murder charges in a 2019 shooting that killed 23 people. He pleaded not guilty in the state case, but his lawyers said last month that he would make a plea to federal charges.

Crusius, 24, turned himself in to police after the massacre, saying “I shot” and that, according to court records, he shot Mexicans. Prosecutors said he drove over 10 hours from his hometown near Dallas to a mostly Hispanic border town, and published a document online shortly before the shooting that said it was “in response to a Hispanic invasion of Texas” .

His alleged statements echoed both the anti-immigration rhetoric of American politicians and the racist statements of other mass shooters in the US and abroad.

More than three years after the shooting, the description of the Republican “invasion” of the US-Mexico border has continued into American politics, angering Democrats and immigrant rights groups.

From campaign ideas to congressional hearings, Republicans are increasingly describing the large numbers of migrants crossing the U.S. border as an intrusion that threatens public safety and overwhelming border communities. Critics condemned the characterization as anti-immigrant and dangerous in the aftermath of the El Paso attacks and other racially motivated attacks.

The shooting took place on August 3, 2019, during a busy weekend at a Walmart store that is usually popular with shoppers from Mexico and the United States. loved one offended.

Many of those killed and wounded were Mexican citizens.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott came under fire for a fundraising mailing the day before the attack calling on his supporters to “defend Texas” from immigrants entering the country illegally. He responded at the time by saying that “mistakes were made” in the email program, but did not elaborate or indicate blame.

But more recently, Abbott has embraced the use of the word “invasion” by authorizing a series of tough immigration measures, including a letter to the state police and the Texas National Guard in November with the subject line “Defend Texas from Invasion.”

Abbott defended his statements by saying that he was referring to provisions included in the US Constitution. Some legal scholars have called this a misreading of the article.

“If this is not an invasion, then what is?” Abbott asked CNN’s Jake Tupper during an interview last month. “Think about the number of people crossing the border.”

Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose county is in South Texas, said the language should end. “We have no war here,” he said.

The Voice of America, an immigration reform group, said it tracked more than 80 Republican candidates during last year’s midterm elections, which escalated what they called “invasion” and “replacement” plots.

“I think it creeps over the years,” said Zachary Muller, political director for VOA. “I would say there was a noticeable shift in 2021 as he moved from the fringes of the GOP to the mainstream of the GOP.”

A database of U.S. mass killings since 2006 compiled by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows that the number of deadly hate crime-related mass shootings has increased in recent years. Of the 13 known cases, the 2019 Walmart shooting was the deadliest. The database has tracked every mass murder – defined as four people, not counting the perpetrator – in the US since 2006.

Although the federal and state cases have developed in parallel, it is unclear when Crusius might face a Texas court because the state case was derailed by allegations of errors and misconduct by the local chief prosecutor.

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Weber reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press reporters Acacia Coronado and Jake Blayberg of Dallas contributed to this report.