Shooting at Walmart in Texas El Paso attacks domestic terrorism
Shooting at Walmart in Texas El Paso attacks domestic terrorism. According to officials, a shootout in a Texas supermarket, which killed 20 people, is currently being investigated as internal terrorism.
A 21-year-old white man was arrested at the scene of the attack in El Paso, near the US-Mexico border.
It is believed that he published an online document calling the attack a response to the “Hispanic invasion of Texas”.
Police said Sunday that he had been charged with “aggravated murder,” which means he could face the death penalty.
US President Donald Trump said “maybe more needed to be done” to avoid mass shooting after the El Paso attack and another in Ohio 13 hours later, in which nine people, including the shooter’s sister, were killed. kill.
“Hate has no place in our country and we will take care of it,” he told reporters on Sunday. “It has been going on for years, years and years in our country and we need to stop it.
The president then linked the two attacks to a “mental illness problem”.
“If you look at both cases, it’s a mental illness, they are people who have a very, very serious mental illness,” he said.
Critics argue that the roots of the two killings are in the president’s language regarding immigrants and Mexicans in particular and their opposition to gun control.
El Paso shooter opened fire Saturday against a crowded Walmart with an assault rifle and surrendered after being confronted by police officers outside the store. Twenty-six people were injured in the shooting.
We treat this as a case of national terrorism, “Texas District Attorney General John Bash told a press conference on Sunday.
He added that the attack seemed “to be aimed at intimidating a civilian population, to say the least”.
US media have described the suspect as Allen’s resident Patrick Crusius in the Dallas area, about 1,046 km east of El Paso. We still do not know how long before the attack he was in town.
The United States stunned by two shootings in 24 hours will something change this time?
It is believed that he is the author of a text published in 8chan, an online discussion forum frequently used by the far right, which describes a “cultural and ethnic replacement caused by an invasion” referring to Hispanics in the United States. The United States.
the main thing is that he four-page document, issued about 20 minutes before police receive Walmart’s first emergency appeal, also expresses support for the gunman who killed 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March.
According to the police, he allegedly cooperated with investigators and told them he had acted alone.
The shooting, which would be the eighth murder in the history of the modern United States, took place in a city where the majority of the population, out of 680,000 inhabitants, is of Hispanic origin.
The victims have not yet been named, but Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said six Mexican citizens were among the dead and seven others wounded.
The images of the security camera that would be the aggressor show a man armed with a black t-shirt with glasses and what seems to be hearing protectors.
Reports of an active shooter were received at 10:39 am local time (1639 GMT), and law enforcement officers arrived at the scene in six minutes, police said.
At the time of the shooting, the Walmart, near the Cielo Vista shopping centre, was filled with buyers buying back-to-school supplies. Witnesses described scenes of chaos when customers fled for their lives.
#ElPasoFuertes trends as the city join
United States gun culture on 10 lists
“People panicked and ran around saying there was a gunman,” Kianna Long told Reuters news agency. “They ran near the ground, people fell to the ground.”
Ms Long stated that she and her husband had gone through a warehouse before taking shelter with other clients.
“They point us”
By Lauren Turner, BBC News, El Paso
“Yesterday, I was in shock … Today, my heart hurts.”
Gilda Baeza Ortega observes the disbelief of the Walmart building on the other side of the parking lot. She went to the store but then decided to go to lunch with her parents.
But that’s not only what makes it so close to what happened.
“It’s the fact that he’s aiming at us, I’m Mexican-American and I’m very proud of it, for me it’s the biggest injury.”