The alleged gunman in the El Paso mass shooting that left 22 dead at a Walmart last month has been indicted on a capital murder charge, El Paso’s district attorney announced Thursday. Patrick Crusius, 21, was indicted by an El Paso County grand jury “for capital murder in relation to the shooting deaths of twenty-two individuals at the Cielo Vista Walmart on August 3, 2019,” according to a press release announcing the charges. If convicted, Crusius faces “death or life imprisonment without parole.”
Police say Crusius allegedly sought to murder Hispanic people inside the crowded store near the U.S.-Mexico border on a Saturday morning. Authorities previously said he posted a racist screed online shortly before he opened fire. Federal authorities say they plan to bring separate capital murder charges, and the Department of Justice is investigating the case as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime, the district attorney’s office said.
