Accused El Paso Walmart shooter indicted on federal hate crime charges

EL PASO, Texas — The man accused of killing 22 people and wounding two dozen more in a shooting that targeted Mexicans in El Paso is being formally charged with federal hate crimes, according to a copy of a federal court indictment obtained by ABC-7.

Suspected gunman Patrick Crusius is accused of killing and harming the victims "because of the actual and perceived national origin of any person," the indictment stated. (You can read the entire indictment document below.)

Federal prosecutors officially announced the 90 counts filed under federal hate crime and firearms laws against Crusius at a Thursday evening news conference in El Paso.

The U.S. Attorney for West Texas, John F. Bash, told reporters the indictment was a "significant step" toward seeking swift and certain justice for the victims and said it was "tremendously important" because "this attack deeply scarred this community." (You can watch his entire remarks in the video player below.)

“People in our nation have the right to go to a store on a Saturday morning without fear that they will be shot and killed because of who they are, or where they’re from,” added Assistant U.S. Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Department of Justice's Civil Right Division.

If the 21-year-old Crusius is convicted of the charges in the federal indictment, he could receive the death penalty or life imprisonment. U.S. Attorney General William Barr will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later time, officials said. Crusius is already facing a potential death sentence if convicted on previously filed state capital murder charges.

"We support the indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as one more way of holding the shooter accountable," El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza told ABC-7 in a statement. "This office will fully cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the prosecution of the federal charges announced today. "

The DOJ said it will prosecute Crusius on a parallel track with Esparza and other Texas officials.

A manifesto attributed to the suspect in the Aug. 3 shooting, during a busy back-to-school shopping day, said the attack was aimed at scaring Hispanics into leaving the United States.

The shooting happened at a time when immigration officials were trying to manage a crush of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and there was political battle over their treatment. El Paso was the epicenter of the influx. President Donald Trump has made cracking down on immigration a hallmark of his administration and the polarizing topic makes headlines around the world.

Eight Mexican nationals were among the victims of the attack at the Walmart store that is popular with shoppers from nearby Ciudad Juarez, just on the other side of the Rio Grande from El Paso.

David Lane, a Colorado-based lawyer representing Crusius in the federal case, said Thursday that he had not yet seen the indictment but hopes federal prosecutors don’t to seek his client’s execution.

“Part of the evolution of our society involves understanding that justice is not synonymous with vengeance, because vengeance disregards the essential humanity in all of us and brutalizes us all,” Lane said. “Part of my job here is to hopefully convince the Department of Justice that they are not the department of vengeance.”

The federal grand jury that indicted Crusius found his alleged crimes came “after substantial planning and premeditation.” He bought a Romanian-made AK-47-style rifle and 1,000 rounds of hallow point ammunition online more than six weeks before he drove 10 hours overnight from his grandparents’ house in a Dallas suburb to El Paso to carry out the attack, according to the indictment.

In a statement issued Thursday evening, Crusius’ family said it was aware of the indictment and has been and continues to be mindful of “the immense pain and suffering of all those affected and touched by this tragedy.” Beyond that, the family said it would make no further comment.

The federal indictment comes as El Paso marks the six-month anniversary of the shooting. Last weekend, San Elizario planted 22 oak trees in honor of the victims and has now set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for personalized plaques to go with each tree. 

City Council member Cassandra Hernandez, whose district includes the Cielo Vista Walmart, said Thursday's announcement was part of the healing process for El Pasoans and the victims.

“The mass shooting our community endured is clearly a symptom of a much larger problem that the United States has to face fully. Execution or life imprisonment for a white supremacist will not stop ethic cleansing in other Hispanic communities like El Paso. This heinous hate crime on the U.S./Mexico border is the definition of domestic terrorism invoked by white nationalism,” Hernandez said.

The Walmart store reopened in November after a massive renovation and a large memorial for the victims now stands in the south end of the store's parking lot.

In the 90-count federal indictment, Crusius faces 22 counts of committing a hate crime resulting in death, 22 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder, 23 counts of a hate crime involving an attempt to kill and 23 counts of use of a firearm during a crime.

The federal charges follows Crusius’ state indictment last fall on a capital murder charge, to which he pleaded not guilty late last year. He has been held without bond since the since the shooting and kept isolated from other prisoners, on suicide watch at El Paso's downtown jail.

Crusius surrendered to police after the attack at the busy Cielo Vista Walmart store, saying, “I’m the shooter,” and admitted that he was targeting Mexicans, according to an arrest warrant.

In court documents, prosecutors said Crusius published a screed online shortly before the shooting that said it was “in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” It cited, as inspiration, a mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed scores of Muslim residents of that country.

The document parroted some of Trump’s immigration policy rhetoric. El Paso residents such as former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination this year, accused Trump of promoting harmful stereotypes and fueling the idea that the increase in migrant crossings was a coordinated “invasion” by Latinos. The president has denied inciting violence.

The charges announced Thursday are the latest by federal prosecutors following high-profile violent incidents. The Justice Department has brought federal hate crimes charges against a man suspected in a Hanukkah machete attack in New York in December that wounded five people; a man who opened fire at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last year; and a man who killed a woman when he drove into a crowd of protesters at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Bash noted the DOJ is facing a "resurgent threat of violence motivated by race, national origin and other categories."

Hate crime charges show members of targeted communities that “they are valued, that their protection matters, and then we will protect them and their rights,” added Dreiband.