Walmart mass shooting victim brought gun to courthouse last year, records show
by Robert Moore
October 23, 2024
A hearing next week in the Walmart mass shooting case may include testimony about a victim of the attack who brought a gun to the El Paso County Courthouse last year, court and sheriff’s records show.
A 39-year-old man, who was among 22 people who survived their wounds in the 2019 mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart, was detained by sheriff’s deputies Oct. 12, 2023, when they found a 9 mm handgun in a diaper bag he was carrying, according to an El Paso County Sheriff’s Office report from that day. He told deputies he forgot he had the gun, and was released two hours later after the District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute him.
El Paso Matters is not naming the man because he wasn’t charged and was a victim of a previous crime. He is named in the sheriff’s report.
The sheriff’s deputy who wrote the report on the incident, Michael Schulte, and the assistant district attorney who declined to prosecute the man, Dana Carmona, were both subpoenaed last week by the District Attorney’s Office to testify at an Oct. 31 hearing into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct raised by lawyers for the Walmart mass shooting suspect. Two other DA employees were subpoenaed the same day.
The subpoenas don’t identify the reason for the testimony, but District Attorney Bill Hicks told El Paso Matters that “dealing with that (courthouse gun) issue is why we subpoenaed some of the people we subpoenaed.”
Hicks said he is “not aware of any direct attempts by anyone to breach the security of the County Courthouse” in connection with the Walmart case.
He declined to further discuss the issue until the Oct. 31 hearing set by 409th District Judge Sam Medrano to explore prosecutorial misconduct allegations made in September motions by lawyers for Patrick Crusius, 26. He is charged with 23 counts of capital murder and 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting in El Paso.
Crusius’ attorneys declined to comment on the gun issue, citing Medrano’s gag order prohibiting lawyers and witnesses from discussing the case with the media.
Defense lawyers raised the gun issue in a Sept. 9 motion alleging prosecutorial misconduct.
“The State’s decision to dismiss the case without prosecution directly impacts (the man’s) credibility as a witness,” the motion said, adding that court decisions have said defense attorneys are entitled to any information that could be used to impeach the credibility of a prosecution witness.
The motion said prosecutors disclosed to the defense that the man had been detained and the DA declined to prosecute, but didn’t provide any details of communication with the man that could be relevant to defense efforts to impeach his testimony.
Schulte’s report on the Oct. 12, 2023, incident said another deputy, Patrick Reyes, discovered a gun at 10:50 a.m. during a routine X-ray screening of the man’s diaper bag at the third-floor entrance connecting the courthouse to a parking garage.
Reyes called Schulte, who searched the diaper bag and found a 9 mm Sig Sauer handgun, one magazine containing five hollow point rounds, and a black holster. The report does not mention a child accompanying the man with the diaper bag.
The man told deputies he was at the courthouse as a witness in the Walmart shooting case. “The Offender stated he had forgotten he had the gun in the diaper bag. The Offender stated that he carries the weapon for self-defense,” Schulte’s report said.
No court proceedings on the Walmart case were taking place that day, but victims and witnesses often go to the District Attorney’s Office in the courthouse for trial preparation and victim services.
Reyes arrested the man for unlawful carrying of a weapon in a prohibited place. Assistant District Attorney Carmona declined prosecution in the case at 1 p.m., just over two hours after the man was stopped, the report said.
The report cited prosecutorial discretion as Carmona’s reason for declining the case.
In a court filing Wednesday, the District Attorney’s Office said the case was declined because the detaining officer believed the man had truly forgotten he had a gun in the diaper bag, and because of two statements from the man’s neighbors on their perception of him.
Sheriff Richard Wiles told El Paso Matters that the District Attorney’s Office usually declines to prosecute people who bring guns to the courthouse, unless there is evidence they planned to use the gun. Texas law allows most adults to carry a concealed gun without a permit, and people sometimes accidentally bring firearms into prohibited areas like the courthouse and schools, Wiles said.
The sheriff said deputies are required to notify the El Paso Council of Judges and the state Office of Court Administration whenever guns are discovered in the courthouse.
Wiles said deputies reported the incident to the Council of Judges but apparently didn’t file the required report to the Office of Court Administration.
The brief arrest of a Walmart shooting victim for bringing a gun into the courthouse was not made public, and the judge overseeing the case wasn’t told about the incident.
Armando Reyes, the bailiff in the 409th District Court, where the Walmart shooting case is being heard, said the court should have been notified that a potential witness in the case had entered the courthouse with a gun.
“It would be important to just put a name to a face, that way we can see if maybe he would come in at a later time or a later date or another hearing, maybe we can secure the courtroom that way. But we were never informed of it and that would be very important for us to know,” Reyes said.
Officials with the county government and Council of Judges have not responded to questions about how the gun incident was reported, and who was notified.
Crusius attended a Sept. 12 hearing, the first time he’d been in Medrano’s courtroom since his 2019 arraignment. He will be required to attend a hearing Thursday and another one scheduled for Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.
The suspect wore a bulletproof vest in the courtroom, which was protected by heavy security. Crusius has been sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms after pleading guilty to federal hate crimes and weapons charges in the Walmart attack. He is being held in the El Paso County jail while awaiting trial on the state capital murder and aggravated assault charges, which could bring a death sentence.
At the hearing Thursday, Medrano will consider a prosecution argument to delay the Oct. 31 hearing on the misconduct allegations. In a court filing last week, the District Attorney’s Office said Medrano and defense lawyers may have had improper ex parte communications – meaning prosecutors were excluded – on some of the issues involved in the Oct. 31 hearing.
If Medrano allows next week’s hearing to go forward, a key focus is expected to be testimony from Loretta Hewitt, a former prosecutor subpoenaed by defense attorneys. Hewitt has accused Hicks of using the Walmart case for political gain, an allegation the DA has denied.
Prosecutors filed a motion to quash Hewitt’s subpoena, arguing that defense lawyers were attempting to obtain privileged attorney work product.
