EL PASO, Texas — A Texas man who fatally shot 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in a targeted attack against people of Mexican descent was sentenced Friday to 90 consecutive life terms.
Patrick Crusius of Allen agreed to life sentences in February pleaded guilty to 90 federal chargesincluding 45 hate charges.
The judge asked that he be sent to ADX Florencemaximum facility jail in Fremont County, Colorado, and requested to receive mental health treatment.
The gunman traveled nearly 600 miles from North Texas to El Paso before opening fire on shoppers with a WASR-10 rifle on August 3, 2019.
Minutes before the attack, he posted a racist, hate-filled rant online that referred to an “invasion” of immigrants into the United States, the Justice Department said.
The department has said Crusius, who admitted to the police that he was the shooterYippee a self-described white nationalist.
The sentencing began on Wednesday and lasted for several days relatives of those killed he spoke to Crusius about their anger and the damage he had caused.
“Look at my son,” Francisco Javier Rodriguez, whose 15-year-old son Javier Amir was killed, said Thursday as the teenager’s image was on the screen.
Kathleen Johnson told Crusius that he had shot her husband, David Johnson, at point-blank range in Aisle 3 that day.
“His innocent blood was everywhere. He was our breadwinner, loving father and grandfather,” said Johnson, who has night terrors and PTSD.
“I don’t even want to look at you,” she said.
Thomas Hoffman talked about his father, Alexander Hoffman, and shared a photo of his parents, who had been married for 40 years, and a ticket for the flight his father was scheduled to take that day.
“You shot my father in the back,” he said Wednesday. “You are a coward.
The gunman bought a WASR-10, a semi-automatic variant of the Romanian-made AK-47 assault rifle, as well as 1,000 rounds of 7.62mm hollow-point ammunition, nearly two months before the attack, according to the indictment. .
He drove overnight from Allen, which is north of Dallas, to El Paso before opening fire on people shopping at Walmart on Saturday morning.
In addition 23 people who were killed, another 22 were injured. The 23rd victim, Guillermo “Memo” Garcia, was wounded and died in hospital in April 2020almost nine months after filming.
When Crusius he was charged with federal hate crimesEric Dreiband, the US Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the time, called the mass shooting and other similar hate crimes heinous crimes designed to terrorize and intimidate.
“This kind of terror will not standDreiband said following the February 6, 2020, accusation.
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr., the shooter, pleaded guilty to violating the Hate Crimes Prevention Act on February 8. and 45 firearms charges. he said then.
— Kayla McCormick reported from El Paso, Phil Helsel reported from Los Angeles.
— Minyvonne Burke contributed.