El Paso Walmart shooting leaves 20 Dead and 26 injured, FBI investigating possible manifesto

A gunman opened fire Saturday morning in a Walmart and around a nearby shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, leaving 20 people dead and 26 injured, and prompting calls for urgent blood donations for the wounded, law enforcement officials said.

Employees and shoppers described scenes of confusion and fear as they realized the sudden loud noises they heard were not boxes being dropped or construction but gunshots.

Authorities have identified the suspected gunman as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, a native of the Dallas area, and stressed that the death toll was preliminary and the investigation is ongoing. It was unclear what connection the suspect had to El Paso.

El Paso Police Sgt. Robert Gomez said at an earlier news conference that the suspect was taken into custody without incident and no law enforcement fired their weapons. The Walmart was near capacity at the time of the shooting, with as many as 3,000 people inside along with 100 employees during the busy back-to-school shopping season.

“This is unprecedented in El Paso,” said Gomez, who added that many of the injured had life-threatening injuries.

The alleged shooter is 21-year-old Patrick Crusius

FBI Investigating Possible Manifesto linked to shooter

The screed is called “The Inconvenient Truth.” It’s reported to have been authored and uploaded to the internet by the 21-year-old. In it, Crusius says, “My whole life I have been preparing for a future that currently doesn’t exist.”

The document reads, “I didn’t spend much time at all preparing for this attack. Maybe a month, probably less. I have do this before I lose my nerve. I figured that an under-prepared attack and a meh manifesto is better than no attack and no manifesto.”

In the four-page document, it’s clear that the writer blames Hispanics in particular for “America rotting from the inside out.” His ideology and socio-political opinions are built upon his issue with immigration.

But he also points to corporate America has bearing much of the blame for the disintegration of the country and takeover of Democrats to make the US a one-party state. He says, “immigration can only be detrimental to the future of America.

Racist statement are found throughout the manifesto. He writes, “…the next logical step is to decrease the number of people in America using resources. If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can become more sustainable.”

The manifesto writer talks about the arsenal he’ll use in the attack. In a matter-of-fact delivery, he wrote that the gun he’d use, would be the WASR 10. “I realized pretty quickly that this isn’t a great choice since it’s the civilian version of the ak47. It’s not designed to shoot rounds quickly, so it overheats massively after about 100 shots fired in quick succession. I’ll have to use a heat-resistant glove to get around this.”

“Even if other non-immigrant targets would have a greater impact, I can’t bring myself to kill my fellow Americans.” The manifesto writer said he supported the Christchurch shooting citing the “Great Replacement” anti-immigration theory postured there. The writer says that his hatred of immigrants predate Trump so “don’t blame” the president.

“My ideology has not changed for several years. My opinions on automation, immigration, and the rest predate Trump and his campaign for president. I’m putting this here because some people will blame the President or certain presidential candidates for the attack. This is not the case. I know that the media will probably call me a white supremacist anyway and blame Trump’s rhetoric. The media is infamous for fake news. Their reaction to this attack will likely just confirm that.”

“I can no longer bear the shame of inaction knowing that our founding fathers have endowed me with the rights needed to save our country from the brink destruction. Our European comrades don’t have the gun rights needed to repel the millions of invaders that plaque (sic) their country. They have no choice but to sit by and watch their countries burn. America can only be destroyed from the inside-out. If our country falls, it will be the fault of traitors. This is why I see my actions as faultless….”