Sentenced to life: El Paso Walmart mass shooter pleads guilty, receives life in prison
The El Paso Walmart mass shooter will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to the worst domestic terror attack on Hispanics in the United States.
The gunman, 26-year-old Patrick Crusius, showed no remorse as he stood wearing an orange-and-white jailhouse jumpsuit before 409th District Court Judge Sam Medrano Monday, April 21, admitting to killing 23 people and injuring dozens more in a 2019 racially-motivated mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart.
The judge told the gunman that, as he spends the rest of his life in prison, his name and hatred will be forgotten.
'On Aug. 3, 2019, you traveled nine hours to a city that would have welcomed you with open arms, but you brought hate,' Medrano said. 'Now, as you begin to spend your life in prison, know your mission failed. You didn't make this community weaker, you made it stronger.'
Medrano accepted his guilty plea and sentenced the gunman to life in prison. The plea and sentencing hearing took place in a courtroom on the third floor of the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse in Downtown El Paso. More than 150 people attended the hearing.
The gunman from Allen, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of capital murder of multiple persons and 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
On a peaceful Saturday morning on Aug. 3, 2019, the gunman who drove nearly 700 miles from Allen, Texas, to El Paso parked at the Walmart, got out of his car and began shooting at innocent shoppers in the store's parking lot. He continued into the store and fatally shot nine people in a bank inside the store.
As he continued his massacre, he killed another nine in the aisles of the store. In total, he fatally shot 23 people and injured dozens more.
He fled the store but turned himself in to a Texas Department of Public Safety state trooper minutes later. He admitted to law enforcement that he committed the mass shooting to stop what he claimed was the invasion of Hispanics coming into the U.S. The mass shooting resulted in the deaths of U.S. and Mexican citizens.
The attack included U.S. and Mexican citizens. It was the deadliest attack on Hispanics in modern American history.
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on X/Twitter @AMartinezEPT.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 2019 El Paso Walmart shooter to spend life in prison, pleads guilty
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