One year ago today, a gunman drove over 600 miles to kill Mexicans at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The gunman, Patrick Wood Crusius, sits in jail today waiting for his day in court. Meanwhile many families look at today as a day of anguish. The why and the how has been pieced together by the killer’s manifesto, information provided by him to law enforcement and the initial court filings charging him with multiple counts of murder.
The Shooter
Patrick Wood Crusius has been charged with killing and injuring several individuals at an El Paso Walmart on August 3, 2019. Crusius drove 650 miles to the Walmart where he shot his victims. Crusius used a GP WASR-10 semi-automatic rifle that was legally purchased. [2] [3] The rifle was purchased via the Internet. [2]
The Arrest
Texas Department of Public Safety Rangers responding to the call of the shooting “observed a vehicle on the corner of Viscount and Sunmount stopped at the left turn lane”. The shooter exited his vehicle with his “hands raised in the air and stated out load” to the officers, “I’m the shooter”. [1]
Under questioning, the shooter told the detectives that his “target” were “Mexicans”. [1] According to Crusius’ The Inconvenient Truth manifesto, his “attack” was in “response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” The manifesto adds that the shooter was “defending” the country “from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.” Crusius goes on to write that his intention is to force Hispanics “to return to their home countries” by giving them the “right incentive” by killing them. [3]
The Victims
There is a discrepancy with the names and numbers of victims with the court documents and the names reported by the news media. The ages of the victims are derived from various news sources. When a discrepancy existed in the age, the most common one was used. The victims listed below are from the court documents.
1. Andre Pablo Anchondo, 23 [4]
2. Arturo Benavides, 60 [4]
3. Jorge Calvillo García, 61, Torreón, Coahuila, México [4]
4. Leonardo “Leo” Campos, Jr., 41 [4]
5. Guillermo “Memo” Garcia, 36 [4]
6. Adolfo Cerros Hernández, 68, Aguascalientes, México [4]
7. Alexander Gerhard Hoffman, 66, Germany, lived in Cd. Juárez [4]
8. Maria Muñoz Flores, 77 [4]
9. Raul Estrada Flores, 83 [4]
10. David Alvah Johnson, 63 [4]
11. Maribel Campos Loya, 56 [4]
12. Jordan Anchondo Jamrowski, 24 [4]
13. Luis Alfonzo Juarez, 90 [4]
14. Ivan Filiberto Manzano, 41, Juárez, Chihuahua, México [4]
15. Gloria Irma Márquez, 61, México [4]
16. Elsa Mendoza de la Mora (Márquez), 57, Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, México [4]
17. Margie Reckard, 63 [4]
18. Sara Ester Regalado Monreal, 66, Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua [4]
19. Javier Rodriguez, 15 [4]
20. Teresa Guerra Sanchez, 82 [4]
21. Angelina Silva Englisbee, 86 [4]
22. Juan de Dios Velázquez Chairez, 77, Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, México [4]
23. Guillermo “Memo” Garcia, 36 [4]
Maria Eugenia Legarreta Rothe, 58, Chihuahua, México has been identified in various news reports as a victim of the shooter. However, her name does not appear on the re-indictment filed against Crusius.
Seven of the victims were living in México at the time of the shooting. One, Hoffman, was a German citizen living in Cd. Juárez.
The Injured
1. Enrique Atilano [4]
2. Luis Ever Calvillo [4]
3. Mario de Alba Montes [4]
4. Erika de Alba Rodriguez [4]
5. Olivia Rodriguez Mariscal [4]
6. Jessica Garcia [4]
7. Michelle Grady [4]
8. Maribel Latin Saenz [4]
9. Ernst Christopher Grant [4]
10. Liliana Munoz [sic] Puente [4]
11. Jeremy Avila [4]
12. Octavio Lizarde [4]
13. Martha Juarez [4]
14. Rosa Calderon [4]
15. Mario Perez Briones [4]
16. Rosa Barron [4]
17. Rosemary Vega [4]
18. Monica Arciniega [4]
19. Anna Gonzalez [4]
20. Maria Magdalena Gonzalez Garcia [4]
21. Alma Enriquez [4]
22. Nicolasa Mena de Velazquez [4]
White Racially Motivated Domestic Terrorism
White racially motivated terrorists “find their roots in two central tenets: belief in the superiority of the white race and dominance of non-whites through violence.” Crusius’ attack follows the pattern of “The Great Replacement” theory where the argument is espoused that the white population is being replaced by minorities.
Crusius Inspires Murders Internationally
According to the Texas DPS report, on August 10, 2019, Philip Manshaus attacked a Norway mosque. Before the attack, Manshaus praised Patrick Crusius. Also, Crusius “drew inspiration from, or identified with, Chistchurch shooter Brenton Tarrant and Anders Breivik, who conducted a 2011 WRM [white racially motivated] mass attack in Norway that killed 77 individuals.” The Texas report adds that “since Patrick Crusius conducted a WRM attack” there “have been at least two international attacks explicitly inspired” by Crusius’ attack in El Paso. [5]
The 8chan Rightwing Online Platform Shutdown
The killer used the modus operandi of other domestic terrorists of posting an online manifesto before starting his attack. Crusius’ manifesto was posted to 8chan by an unknown individual. 8chan had become a propaganda platform used by right-wing terrorists to spread violence and call-to-arms for others to commit more terrorism. 8chan was also used in the rightwing attacks on Christchurch in New Zealand and the Poway synagogue attacks.
Previous attempts to shut down 8chan had failed until the El Paso shootings. Crusius was the third killer to use 8chan to post his manifesto and notify readers of his planned attack. After the El Paso attacks, Cloudflare disabled access to 8chan. James Watkins, the 8chan owner, tried to resurrect the site but by November 6, 2019 it was closed as technology providers refused to allow it to operate on their platforms.
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Footnotes:
1. Arrest Warrant, August 4, 2019.
2. Indictment EP20CR0389 filed on February 6, 2020, US District Court, Western District, El Paso Division
3. Patrick Crusius, The Inconvenient Truth online manifesto, retrieved online by the author shortly after the shooting was reported in the news media. Although there is some discrepancy about whether the online manifesto was posted by the shooter directly, or not, the court documents reference parts of the online version of the document. [8chan /pol/ board]
4. Grand Jury Re-Indictment (19-215079), June 25, 2020
5. Texas Domestic Terrorism Threat Analysis, (Texas Fusion Center, Intelligence & Counterterrorism Division, Texas Department of Public Safety), January 2020.
