Mourners revisit original Walmart shooting memorial in continued attempt to heal

EL PASO, Texas -- As part of the one-year anniversary marking the horrific Aug. 3, 2019 shooting, more than 100 people gathered behind the Cielo Vista Walmart store as a way to remember those tragic events and heal.

The area, in front of a restaurant on Sunmount Drive, is where members of the community initially gathered and created a makeshift memorial in the days following the shooting -- with thousands of pictures, flowers and candles.

Monday on the anniversary, people made their way to that original site to pay tribute, remember and heal, all while socially distancing in keeping with best practices in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of the highlights of the day came when 23 large crosses were marched into the site.

Each cross carried the name of someone who died that day.

Among the attendees was Tony Basco, who lost his wife of 22 years, Margie Reckard, in the shooting. Basco gained community-wide notoriety when he invited the entire Borderland to attend his wife's funeral.

After speaking to the crowd, Basco walked over to the cross that bears his wife's name and choked up.

Meanwhile, El Paso Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz spoke about the need to continue to honor and remember the victims of the shooting.

“We find ourselves today even more aware and committed to work and to struggle for the changes that are needed in our border community and our country as a whole," Seitz said. "Without that commitment, the lives lost so senselessly on that day in this act of domestic terror would be in vain.”

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar told the crowd to remember that the alleged shooter was not a member of the Borderland community.

Escobar also said that several of the families who lost loved ones were now suffering financially.

"I spoke with two of those families just now that are facing those kinds of money issues," Escobar said. "We promised that we would do our part to take care of them but we are not holding up our end of the bargain."

El Paso Mayor Dee Margo, during a busy day of visiting several memorial sites, talked about how the city is continuing to heal.

"The road to healing will continue to be a long one," he said. "Frankly, we will need more time and a lot of the closure will not come until the shooter who did this had been tried and given the full measure of justice that he deserves."