The Texas man who fatally shot 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in an attack targeting people of Mexican descent was sentenced Friday to 90 consecutive life terms.
Patrick Crusius, of Allen, agreed to consecutive life terms in February when he pleaded guilty to 90 federal counts, including 45 hate crime counts.
He traveled nearly 600 miles from North Texas to El Paso before opening fire on shoppers on Aug. 3, 2019 with a WASR-10 rifle.
Minutes before the attack, he posted a hate-filled racist tirade online referring to an “invasion” of immigrants into the United States, the Justice Department said.
the department has said Crusius, who admitted to police that he was the shooter, is a self-described white nationalist.
Sentencing began Wednesday, and for days relatives of those killed spoke to Crusius about his anger and the damage he caused.
“Look at my son,” Francisco Javier Rodríguez, whose 15-year-old son Javier Amir was killed, said Thursday as an image of the teenager flashed on a screen.
Kathleen Johnson told Crusius that she shot her husband, David Johnson, at point blank range in Aisle 3 that day.
“His innocent blood was everywhere. He was our loving provider, father and grandfather,” said Johnson, who has night terrors and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I don’t even want to look at you,” he said.
Thomas Hoffman opened up about his father, Alexander Hoffman, sharing a photo of his parents who had been married for 40 years and a plane ticket for a flight his father was supposed to take that day.
“You shot my dad in the back,” he said Wednesday. “You are a coward.”
The shooter purchased the WASR-10, which is a Romanian-made semi-automatic variant of the AK-47 assault rifle, as well as 1,000 rounds of 7.62mm hollow point ammunition, nearly two months before the attack, according to the indictment. .
He drove overnight from Allen, which is north of Dallas, to El Paso before opening fire on people shopping at Walmart on a Saturday morning.
In addition to the 23 people who died, another 22 were injured. The 23rd victim, Guillermo “Memo” Garcia, was wounded and died at a hospital in April 2020, nearly nine months after the shooting.
When Crusius was indicted on federal hate crime charges, then-U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Eric Dreiband called the mass shooting and other similar hate acts heinous crimes intended to terrorize and intimidate.
“This kind of terror won’t holdDreiband said after the February 6, 2020 indictment.
The shooter pleaded guilty Feb. 8 to 45 counts of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and 45 counts of firearms, the Justice Department said. said at the time.
Minyvonne Burke contributed.
