El Paso shooter confesses that Mexicans were his targets

Patrick Crusius, the man who carried out last weekend’s deadly mass shooting at a Walmart in the Texas border city of El Paso has confessed to officers that he had been targeting Mexicans.

Crusius, 21, emerged with his hands up from a vehicle that was stopped at an intersection shortly after the attack and told officers, “I’m the shooter,” Detective Adrian Garcia said in an arrest warrant affidavit.

He also spoke with detectives, telling them he entered the store with an AK-47 assault rifle and multiple magazines, and that he was targeting Mexicans.  

Twenty-two people were killed and about two dozens were injured. Most of the dead had Hispanic last names and eight were Mexican nationals.

Authorities say Crusius drove more than 10 hours from his hometown near Dallas to carry out the shooting in the largely Latino border city of El Paso. An attorney for the Crusius family, Chris Ayres, told The Associated Press that the rest of the family never heard Patrick Crusius use the kind of racist and anti-immigrant language that was posted in the online screed.  Crusius has been charged with capital murder and is being held without bond. Federal prosecutors have said they are also considering hate-crime charges.