An American Shooter, Jorge Crusius, for the Last of Hispanic Invasion: Witnessing the Loss of a Baby in a Border City
Crusius surrendered to police after the massacre, saying, “I’m the shooter, ” and that he was targeting Mexicans, according to court records. He traveled more than a decade from Dallas to the mostly Latino border city and published a document online that claimed to be in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.
Wearing a navy jail jumpsuit and glasses while handcuffed, Crusius verbally pleaded “guilty” to each charge as the judge read the 90 counts aloud, a list that included the names of the deceased victims and wounded survivors.
He was asked to stand while giving his pleas and, as he admitted his guilt, multiple people in the audience could be seen wiping their eyes, but the crowd was silent. The audience was full of family members of the victims.
After court, Joe Spencer told reporters that they were glad it was done. “And he’s glad that it was finally done. There are no winners in this case. He’s going to be serving 90 consecutive life sentences.”
In that case, Texas prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty. A trial for the state capital murder charge hasn’t been scheduled yet, but Crusius has pleaded not guilty.
As the epidemic of mass shootings in America continues unabated, Crusius also faces state charges for the August 3, 2019, massacre that left almost two dozen people wounded. The slain included a 15-year-old soccer player and a 60-year-old Army veteran who would give “a meal and a home to anyone.”
A Hispanic Invasion Kills Me and My Daughters: The Case of Albert Crusius in El Paso, Texas
The trial date for the state case won’t be set until after the federal case is over, according to CNN affiliate KFOX. Hicks added the state trial could start in 2024 or 2025, but the schedule will be up to the district court judge.
The suspect drove 11 hours from his hometown of Allen, Texas to El Paso with the intent of killing immigrants and Mexicans.
The suspect is believed to have written an attack on The Inconvenient Truth about twenty minutes before the massacre. It included White supremacist language, opposed “race mixing” and encouraged immigrants to return to their home countries.
“This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” Crusius wrote, according to an indictment. They are not the instigators. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by the invasion.”
The indictment states that the suspect bought a semi- gun and 1,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition online weeks before the shooting.
The death penalty was taken off the table after Crusius had originally pleaded not guilty. In Texas, he could still be sentenced to death if he is found guilty on his separate capital murder charges.
Albert Hernandez, whose sister and brother-in-law were killed in the attack, was one of about 40 people with close ties to the victims in the court gallery. He called Crucius a coward who was trying to “save his own skin” by pleading guilty in federal court.
Defend Texas Against Invasion: After the El Paso Walmart Shooting, Attorney General Craig Crusius is a Federal Hate Crime
The Aug. 3, 2019, shooting happened on a busy weekend at a Walmart that is typically popular with shoppers from Mexico and the U.S. Many were injured and scarred by having a loved one hurt, in addition to those who were killed.
During the plea hearing, prosecutors described how the attack started when a man was shot in the parking lot, and how someone opened fire on people at the soccer team’s fund-raising event.
Prosecutors said that 9 people were shot to death at a bank near the entrance whenCrusius moved into the store. A couple’s baby survived with broken bones in his hand, because of their husband and wife.
Crusius’ writings before the shooting echoed both the anti-immigration rhetoric of American politics and racist screeds put out by other mass shooters in the U.S. and abroad.
The “invasion” on the US- Mexico border was described in American politics more than three years after the shooting. Critics have condemned the characterization as anti-immigrant and dangerous in the aftermath of El Paso and other racially motivated attacks.
The governor of Texas has recently embraced using the word “invasion,” while authorizing hardline immigration measures. In November, Abbott sent a letter to state police and the Texas National Guard with the subject line “Defend Texas Against Invasion.”
Abbott has defended his statements by saying he is invoking language included in the U.S. Constitution. Some legal scholars think it’s a misinterpretation.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/08/1155614286/el-paso-walmart-shooting-guilty-plea-federal-hate-crime-weapons-charges
The 2016 midterm election: What have we learned from a marked shift in the margins of the Republican Party and how many Democrats have voted against it?
More than 80 Republican candidates amplified what they called “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracies over the course of last year’s mid-term elections, according to America’s Voice.
“I think it’s been creeping over the years,” said Zachary Mueller, political director of America’s Voice. “What I would say is that in 2021, there was a marked shift where it went from the fringes of the Republican Party into the mainstream of the Republican Party.”
There have been a number of deadly mass killings in the US since 2006 according to a database compiled by The Associated Press and USA Today. The Walmart shooting was the most prominent of the 13 instances. The database tracks every mass killing — defined as four dead, not including the offender — in the U.S. since 2006.