A gunman who opened fire at a shopping centre in El Paso on Saturday killed 20 people, according to Gov Greg Abbott of Texas, and injured 26 others.
The police said that one suspect, a white male in his 20s from Allen, Tex., was in custody, and that the gunman had fired an AK-47-style rifle into a crowded Walmart store, sending panicked shoppers fleeing for their lives. Officials said the gunman had surrendered to the police.
Several officials identified the gunman as Patrick Crusius, 21.
The gunfire on Saturday in El Paso began a few minutes before 11am, in a popular commercial district near Cielo Vista Mall with scores of restaurants and stores that are often crowded on the weekends. The Walmart, near Hawkins Boulevard and Gateway Boulevard West a short distance from the mall, was packed at the time.
Chief Greg Allen of the El Paso Police Department said officials were exploring potential capital murder charges for the suspect.
The FBI is currently reviewing evidence to determine whether to move forward with federal charges, but Emmerson Buie Jr, the special agent in charge, said that the FBI had not determined whether the shooting was a hate crime, another federal crime or an act of domestic terrorism. Currently the case is a state murder investigation.
Authorities are investigating a manifesto in connection with the shooting.
Law enforcement officials are studying an anti-immigrant manifesto to determine whether it was written by the gunman, according to a local law enforcement official who has been briefed on the investigation. Given the manifesto’s racially extremist views, it could make the killings a federal hate crime or an act of domestic terrorism if officials determine that it is tied to the shootings.
It declares support for the gunman who killed 51 in Christchurch, New Zealand, outlines fears about Hispanic people gaining power in the United States and appears to discuss specific details about elements of the attack, including weapons.
“Hispanics will take control of the local and state government of my beloved Texas, changing policy to better suit their needs,” the manifesto said. It added that politicians of both parties are to blame for the United States “rotting from the inside out,” but that “the heavy Hispanic population in Texas will make us a Democrat stronghold.”
Officials said that at least 26 people were wounded in the attack. Marcelo Ebrard, the secretary of foreign affairs of Mexico, said six Mexican nationals were among the injured. Mr Ebrard identified three by name: Mario de Alba Montes, 45; Olivia Mariscal Rodriguez, 44; and Erika de Alba Mariscal, 10.
Enrique Duenas-Aguilar, a spokesman for the El Paso Fire Department, said emergency workers had transported 18 people who were wounded to nearby hospitals. “We don’t have any numbers on fatalities as of right now,” Mr Duenas-Aguilar said.
Local hospitals are treating patients from the scene. Victor Guerrero, a spokesman for Del Sol Medical Center, said the hospital was treating 11 victims. Nine were in critical but stable condition and two were stable, he said. Patient ages ranged from 35 to 82.
The University Medical Center of El Paso received 13 patients, according to Ryan Mielke, the hospital’s spokesman. He said two minors, including a two-year-old, were stabilized and transferred to El Paso Children’s Hospital. Mr Mielke said the victims’ conditions ranged from minor injury to fatal.
Dozens of people waiting to donate blood at the Vitalant blood bank watching the news on TV following the El Paso Walmart shooting CreditAdriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times
Witnesses described the violent scene.
“We heard shots and saw smoke,” said Victor Gamboa, 18, who works at the McDonald’s inside the Walmart store where the shooting took place. “I saw a man on the floor full of blood. He appeared to be dead. It happened very quickly.”
Mr Gamboa said he and other McDonald’s workers inside the Walmart sheltered the customers to keep them safe and huddled on the ground for 15 minutes. Officers eventually arrived and escorted the group out to a Sam’s Club store across the street.
Manuel Uruchurtu, 20, had just paid at the Walmart register at 10:36am and was walking out of the store’s doors when he heard the sound of shots.
As Mr Uruchurtu fled the store with a horde of people, he saw two bodies on the ground outside, one surrounded by a pool of blood.
“I saw people crying: children, old people, all in shock,” Mr Uruchurtu said.
“I saw a baby, maybe six to eight months old, with blood all over their belly,” Mr Uruchurtu said. “It was crying and crying. Fortunately it was still alive.”
People arrive at MacArthur Elementary looking for family and friends as the school is being used a re-unification centre during the aftermath the shooting near the Cielo Vista Mall.
El Paso has been at the centre of the migrant crisis.
For months, El Paso has been in the national spotlight, as thousands of Central American families have flooded the city and surrounding areas.
The waves of migrants, and the difficulty the Trump administration has had providing shelter and medical care to them, has captured the attention of President Trump and Democratic lawmakers and presidential candidates. El Paso is a majority-Hispanic city of 682,000 that has long had a binational feel because of its proximity and ties to its sister city in Mexico, Ciudad Juárez.
Officials expressed their sympathies.
Mr Trump has been briefed on the shooting, and Trump administration officials were monitoring the situation.
“Terrible shootings in El Paso, Texas,” Mr Trump said on Twitter. “Reports are very bad, many killed.”
He pledged “total support of Federal Government” to state and local authorities, and spoke about the shooting with the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, who was headed to the scene of the attack on Saturday afternoon, and called it “a heinous and senseless act of violence” in a statement.
Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic presidential candidate who represented El Paso in Congress for years, cancelled his campaign events in Nevada and California to return to the city. On Saturday, speaking at a Las Vegas candidates’ forum before he departed for El Paso, Mr O’Rourke teared up as he told the audience: “There is a lot of injury and suffering in El Paso right now. El Paso is the strongest place in the world. I’m going to be with my family and be with my hometown.”
Julián Castro called for a national assault weapons ban and for universal background checks during an on-air interview with CNN. Mr Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, sharply ridiculed the argument that mass shootings could be prevented if more people were able to carry guns. “Shooters like this are using weapons of war that don’t belong in the streets of America,” he said.
