Suspect in Walmart shooting pleads guilty to federal charges

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

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” .

From inside a Texas Walmart in 2019, during one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, Adria Gonzalez overheard a gunman yelling anti-Mexican epithets as she helped panicked shoppers to the store’s exit.

She won’t be there Wednesday when Patrick Crusius is expected to plead guilty in an El Paso courtroom to federal hate crime and firearm charges for the murder of 23 people. But she is outraged that federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for a racist attack that investigators believe was preceded by an Internet post warning of a “Hispanic invasion” of Texas.

“This is a slap in the face for us Latinos,” Gonzalez said.

The pending guilty plea would amount to a first conviction in a case that has dragged on for more than three years, and Crusius could still face the death penalty on separate state charges. But for Democrats and immigrant rights groups, there is a separate disappointment: the description of the “invasion” at the US-Mexico border continues in American politics even after the shooting in El Paso.

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 issue resurfaced on Tuesday during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee border security hearing in which Democrats accused the other side of fanning anti-migrant rhetoric. Republicans opposed and criticized a tweet sent by Democrats to the committee accusing other members of spreading “white nationalist conspiracy theories.”

“For my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who want to say that we are using this hearing for white nationalism, I don’t,” said Black Florida Rep. Byron Donalds.

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.

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 more than 10 hours from his hometown near Dallas to a predominantly Hispanic border town. Shortly before opening fire, Crusius posted a document online stating that he fired in response to what he called “the Latin American invasion of Texas”.

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. At the time, he responded by saying that “errors were made” in the mailer, but did not elaborate or state 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.

It remains unclear when Crusius could face trial on separate state charges in Texas. Gonzalez, who is credited with saving lives at Walmart, believes the death penalty would send a message.

While caring for his 3-month-old baby at home in El Paso, Gonzalez says he lives in fear of further attacks and now carries a small handgun for protection after receiving firearms training.

“It will stay with us who were inside that Walmart shooting that August morning,” she said. “We are the ones who have seen everything, and we still hurt inside.”