The killer allegedly entered a Walmart in El Paso at around 10 a.m. Saturday and began shooting at customers there, then made his way to the Cielo Vista Mall next door, where he continued his rampage. Police say he was apprehended without incident.
Medical authorities report several of the wounded victims are in “life-threatening” situations. Nine of them are in critical but stable condition.
In his manifesto, he explained that he hates automation and corporations, and blames them for a stagnant economy. But what drives him to murderous rage is immigration, saying it “can only be detrimental to the future of America.”
Like most such mass killers, he cast himself in a heroic light: “I just want to say that I love the people of this country, but god damn most of y’all are just too stubborn to change your lifestyle,” he wrote. “So the next logical step is to decrease the number of people in America using resources. If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can become more sustainable.
He discussed his dreams of making Latinos return to home countries because of the threat of violence in massacres such as the one he intended to commit.
“I am against race mixing because it destroys genetic diversity and creates identity problems,” he explained. “Also because it’s completely unnecessary and selfish.”
Though he described his sympathy for Republicans, he attempted to stave off any attempts to blame Donald Trump’s eliminationist rhetoric for inspiring his terrorism with a disclaimer of sorts:
My ideology has not changed for several years. My opinions on automation, immigration, and the rest predate Trump and his campaign for president. I [am] putting this here because some people will blame the President or certain presidential candidates for the attack. This is not the case. I know that the media will probably call me a white supremacist anyway and blame Trump’s rhetoric. The media is infamous for fake news. Their reaction to this attack will likely just confirm that.
He closed the manifesto by claiming the hero’s mantle: “This is just the beginning of the fight for America and Europe. I am honored to head the fight to reclaim my country from destruction.”
Crusius’s poll tweet.
A Twitter account accredited to the killer featured mostly mainstream right-wing content. However, a poll he created asked readers which of several options was the best way that “POTUS has worked to secure the country so far,” while among the Twitter posts that he liked was one featuring Trump’s name spelled out in a photo with an array of guns, reading: “I’m extremely proud to call Trump my president!”
Texas officials say they are considering filing capital murder charges, which he anticipated in his manifesto too: “Capture in this case [is] far worse than dying because I’ll get the death penalty anyway. Worse still is that I would live knowing that my family despises me.”
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