A federal grand jury in El Paso, Texas, on February 6 indicted Patrick Wood Crusius, 21, of Allen, Texas, on hate crimes and firearm charges in connection with the murder of 22 people and attempted murder of 23 others at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on August 3, 2019.
Crusius already faces the death penalty on state charges for murder. He has pleaded not guilty. The federal prosecution will run concurrently with the state’s.
U.S. Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced the charges together with U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas John Bash, and Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s El Paso Field Office Luis Quesada.
The indictment alleges that on August 3, 2019, Crusius opened fire with an assault rifle and shot multiple individuals in and around the Walmart Supercenter in El Paso, leading to the death of 22 people and injuring many more.
The indictment further alleges that, on the same date as the shooting, Crusius uploaded to the internet a document he had drafted entitled “The Inconvenient Truth.”
The prosecutor further noted that Crusius started his document by stating, “This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by the invasion.”
‘Harmed Victims Because of National Origin’
The indictment charges that Crusius “willfully caused bodily injury to the victims because of the actual and perceived national origin of any person,” according to the Western District Attorney’s office.
In total, the 90-count indictment charges Crusius with 22 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, 23 hate crimes involving an attempt to kill, and 45 counts of discharging a firearm in relation to the hate crimes.
Upon conviction, the charges in the indictment call for the death penalty or life imprisonment. The Attorney General will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later time.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ian Hanna and Greg McDonald of the Western District of Texas, and U.S. Department of Justice Trial Attorneys Tim Visser and Michael Warbel.
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