Patrick Crusiuspleaded guiltyin U.S. District Court in February to 90 federal charges, including 45 hate crime charges and 45 firearm charges, and was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences in prison on Friday, according to aU.S. Department of Justicepress release.
AP Photo/Andrés Leighton
“The 90 consecutive life sentences announced today guarantee that Patrick Crusius will spend the rest of his life in prison for his deadly, racist rampage in El Paso,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in the Department of Justice release.
“We are grateful to the victims and their family members who have spent the last three days bravely sharing the devastation and pain they endured because of Crusius’s horrendous crimes,” he added. “The Justice Department’s commitment to combating hate crimes is unwavering.”
The gunman, 24, traveled from the city of Allen, located north of Dallas, to the Cielo Vista Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 23 armed with a WASR-10, a Romanian semi-automatic variant to the AK-47 assault rifle, and 1,000 rounds of 7.62 mm hollow-point ammunition, perNBC News.
He began gunning down people in the parking lot before moving into the store, killing several people in the aisles and a bank in the store, per USA Today. 23 people were killed and 22 more were injured, including several residents hailing from El Paso and Juárez, Mexico.
The shooter later admitted, per court documents, that he targeted that specific Walmart and the people in it for their national origin and intended to kill everyone he shot, according to the Department of Justice.
Per the DOJ, he characterized himself as a white nationalist in a manifesto he uploaded online minutes before the attack who was “motivated to kill Hispanics” to dissuade them from immigrating to the U.S.
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“This hate crime, that extinguished the lives of 23 innocent people, stands as one of the most horrific acts of white nationalist-driven violence in modern times,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said.
She added, “We lift up the legacies of those who lost their lives and those who survived this tragedy and will ensure that they are never forgotten.”
source: people.com
