Patrick Crusius

Patrick Wood Crusius (born July 27, 1998) was arrested shortly after the shooting and charged with capital murder.

A 21-year-old of German and Italian descent, he was last known to have lived in his family's home in Allen, Texas, in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, approximately 650 mi from El Paso.

Crusius registered to vote in 2016 as a Republican and had a Twitter account from 2017 that showed a photo of Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

He also had a pro-Trump poll that included responses such as "#BuildTheWall, #NoSanctuaryCities, #KeepGitmoOpen and #BanSyrianRefugees".

Crusius has admitted to posting a manifesto, titled The Inconvenient Truth, on the online message board 8chan shortly before the shooting.

The post includes the suspect's name, and the manifesto identifies the type of weapon used in the attack.

Site moderators quickly removed the original post, though users continued to share copies.

Claiming to have been inspired by the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand that killed 51 people earlier the same year, the author expresses support for the perpetrator of the Christchurch shootings and bemoans grievances such as environmental degradation, "cultural and ethnic replacement", and a "Hispanic invasion".

The anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant manifesto promotes the white nationalist and far-right conspiracy theory called the Great Replacement, often attributed to the French writer Renaud Camus.

He graduated in 2017 from Plano Senior High School, and was enrolled at Collin College from 2017 until spring 2019.

On August 3, 2019, a terrorist mass shooting occurred at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, United States.

The gunman, 21-year-old Patrick Wood Crusius, killed 23 people and injured 22 others.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime.

The shooting has been described as the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern American history.

Crusius surrendered and was arrested and charged with capital murder in connection with the shooting.

He posted a manifesto with white nationalist and anti-immigrant themes on the imageboard 8chan shortly before the attack.

The manifesto cites the Christchurch mosque shootings earlier that year, and the far-right conspiracy theory known as the Great Replacement, as inspiration for the attack.

On February 8, 2023, following an announcement that the Department of Justice would not seek the death penalty, Crusius pleaded guilty to 90 federal murder and hate crime charges.

On July 7, 2023, Crusius was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences, but he is currently pending trial for state charges that would still potentially result in the death penalty under Texas state jurisdiction if found guilty.

The shooting occurred at a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall on the east side of El Paso.

Crusius walked into the store carrying what is believed to be a WASR-10 rifle, a semi-automatic civilian version of the AKM, and opened fire at 10:39 a.m.

The store manager witnessed Crusius firing in the parking lot prior to entering the crowded store.

He issued a "Code Brown", designating an active shooter, to his employees, who began helping customers evacuate or hide.

Many customers and employees fled to other stores in the adjacent mall or hid under tables or in shipping containers located behind the building.

First responders began to arrive within six minutes of the initial 9-1-1 call.

The El Paso Police Department, Texas Rangers, and paramedics responded to the scene along with the FBI and the ATF.

After the shooting, Crusius drove to the intersection of Sunmount and Viscount.

Arriving there, he stopped at the left turn lane, came out of the car with his hands up and identified himself as the shooter to Texas Rangers and an El Paso motorcycle officer.

He was then arrested and transported to police headquarters.

The shooting has been described as the deadliest anti-Latino attack in recent U.S. history, resulting in 23 deaths and 22 injuries.

Crusius legally purchased a GP WASR-10 semiautomatic rifle and 1,000 rounds of hollow-point ammunition online in June 2019.

During his first interrogation, he told detectives he had targeted Mexicans, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Crusius was also diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.

Twenty of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, one victim died the day after the event, another victim died two days after, and a third died eight months later on April 26, 2020.

Among the dead were thirteen Americans, eight Mexicans and one German.

The names, ages, and citizenships of 22 of the dead were released by the El Paso Police Department on August 5.

Seventeen were 56 or older, two were in their 40s, two in their 20s, one was 36, and one was 15.

Thirteen victims were taken to the University Medical Center of El Paso, and another eleven to the Del Sol Medical Center.

Two children, ages 2 and 9, were transferred to El Paso Children's Hospital after their conditions were stabilized.

The Del Sol Medical Center patients were between 35 and 82 years old.