An American youth who killed 23 people at a popular Hispanic supermarket in El Paso in 2019 pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday, local media report.
During a hearing in this US border city with Mexico, Patrick Crusius, 24, formally pleaded guilty to the 90 charges against him, including “racist crimes resulting in death,” according to channels ABC7 and KFOX14.
His lawyers had announced their change of strategy in January, after federal prosecutors gave up seeking the death penalty against him.
He still faces a murder trial before the Texas State Court, which has not ruled out demanding the death penalty.
white supremacy
At the beginning of August 2019, Patrick Crusius published a document containing the theses of white supremacy. He denounced a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and praised the perpetrator of the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque massacre (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, where he opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at a Walmart hypermarket.
When the 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
