A young American man who killed 23 people at a popular Hispanic supermarket in El Paso in 2019 will finally plead guilty, according to court documents. Accused of “racist crimes resulting in death”, 24-year-old Patrick Crusius “notified the court of his intention to plead guilty”, a week after prosecutors gave up seeking the death penalty.
A judge set the hearing for February 8 to formalize his change of strategy and avoid a federal trial.
He still faces a murder trial in the state of Texas, which has not ruled out seeking the death penalty.
Murderer admitted wanting to attack “Mexicans”
At the beginning of August 2019, Patrick Crusius had published a document containing the theses of white supremacy. He denounced a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and praised the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque massacre in New Zealand (51 dead on March 15).
He then drove about 10 hours from the Dallas suburbs where he lived to El Paso, a predominantly Hispanic city on the border with Mexico, where he opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at a Walmart hypermarket.
When police arrived, he had gotten out of a vehicle, hands up, saying, “I’m the shooter.” While in police custody, he admitted to wanting to attack “Mexicans.”
The carnage left 23 dead, including eight Mexican citizens and the majority Hispanic Americans. It had deeply shocked the United States and sparked a debate about responsibility for Republican President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant tirades.
The El Paso carnage remains one of the deadliest murders in US history, yet it is regularly marred by shootings.
Source: BFM TV
