EL PASO, Texas — The shooting that killed 20 people at a crowded El Paso department store will be handled as a domestic terrorism case, federal authorities said Sunday as they weighed hate-crime charges against the suspected gunman that could carry the death penalty.
A local prosecutor announced that he would file capital murder charges, declaring that the alleged assailant had “lost the right to be among us.”
The attack on Saturday was followed less than a day later by another shooting that claimed nine lives in a nightlife district of Dayton, Ohio. That shooter was killed by police. Together the two assaults wounded more than 50 people, some of them critically, and shocked even a nation that has grown accustomed to regular spasms of gun violence.
Investigators focused on whether the El Paso attack was a hate crime after the emergence of a racist, anti-immigrant screed that was posted online shortly beforehand. Detectives sought to determine if it was written by the man who was arrested. The border city has figured prominently in the immigration debate and is home to 680,000 people, most of them Latino.
Using a rifle, the El Paso gunman opened fire on shoppers during the busy back-to-school season. The attack targeted a Walmart and did not spread to other nearby shopping areas, El Paso police Sgt. Robert Gomez said. Most victims were inside the store. By Sunday evening, all bodies had been removed from the store and the parking lot, police said. Law enforcement officials identified him as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius from Allen, a Dallas suburb which is a nearly 10-hour drive from El Paso.
The suspect’s grandparents, Larry and Cynthia Brown, issued a statement Sunday evening. A family friend read the statement aloud outside the couple’s home in Allen, KDFW reported. The Browns said they were “devastated” by the shooting and were praying for the victims. The couple added that while Crusius’ driver’s license shows their Allen residence, he had moved out of the home six weeks ago. Crusius was living with his grandparents while he attended nearby Collin College. Crusius was arrested without police firing any shots and was jailed without bond, authorities said.