A 21-year-old Texan armed with an assault rifle and murderous rage turned a packed Walmart in El Paso into a slaughterhouse on Saturday, killing at least 20 people in one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history, police said.
A single suspect — identified by CNN as Patrick Crusius of Allen, TX a suburb of Dallas — was in custody hours after the mid-morning shooting, that left as many as 26 more people hospitalized, a police spokesman said.
“Twenty innocent people from El Paso have lost their lives and more than two dozen more are injured,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at an evening press conference where police confirmed the staggering death toll. “We as a state unite in support of the victims and their family members. We want to do all we can to assist them.”
The youngest patient is a four-month-old baby who suffered traumatic injuries, hospital officials told CBS News.
The oldest among the injured is 82, ABC News reported.
The Walmart is near the sprawling Cielo Vista Mall, a popular shopping destination among Mexican tourists who cross into the border city to shop, then return home, the station reported.
“We have ruled out multiple shooters,” El Paso Police Department Sgt. Robert Gomez told reporters; officials had earlier said that witnesses reported seeing a pair of gunmen.
Law enforcement agencies sped to the scene, including local cops, state troopers, and federal agents with AFT, Homeland Security and border patrol.
The suspect was apprehended “without incident,” and without officers discharging their weapons, Gomez said.
“We have no information about what the motive is.”
But investigators are reviewing a manifesto — in which the author writes, “This attack is in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas— believed to have been written by Crusius and posted online just a half hour before the shooting, CNN reported.
A city of 680,000, El Paso sits just across from Juarez, Mexico.
“This is just a tragedy that I’m having a hard time getting my arms around,” El Paso Mayor Dee Margo told CNN.
The gunman began opening fire at around 10 a.m. local time, beginning his rampage in the store’s parking lot, an eyewitness told ABC News Radio.
Dressed in khaki pants and a dark, v-neck t-shirt, he looked like he was dancing as he stalked his victims, shopper Vanessa Saenz told the station.
He cornered a small crowd of cowering victims, raised his rifle, and started firing, she said. He then walked with confidence into the store, “Like he was on a mission.”
Bystander video shows the young gunman next entering the Walmart — through the automotive section, one witness recounted — with rifle leveled.
In the video, he is wearing the kind of ear protectors and safety glasses common to firing ranges.
He “started shooting everyone, aisle by aisle, with rage,” said shopper Miguel Rodriguez, who’d been shopping for a toy for his 7-year-old son when he heard the gunshots and ducked to the ground, he told the Daily Beast.
Shoppers– many buying back-to-school supplies, cowered under tables as shots rang through the store, according to one witness video published by the local CBS afilliate.
“People were panicking and running, saying that there was a shooter,” Kianna Long said. “They were running close to the floor, people were dropping on the floor,” said Long, who escaped through the stock room and sheltered in a steel container with other customers in the store’s shipping area.
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