The gunman who killed 23 people and left dozens of others injured during amass shooting at a Texas Walmart in 2019pleaded guilty to dozens of charges, authorities said.
Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty in court on Wednesday to a 90-count indictment and has agreed to accept 90 consecutive life sentences, one for each count in the indictment, the Department of Justice said in a news release.
The guilty plea included 23 counts for hate crime acts that resulted in the deaths of each individual murdered, the release said, as well as 22 hate crimes that caused great bodily injury and involved an attempt to kill those injured in the shooting.
He also admitted to 45 gun crime violations, per the release, pleading guilty to 23 counts of using a firearm in a federal crime of violence resulting in death and 22 counts of using a firearm in a federal crime of violence.
Briana Sanchez/AP/Shutterstock
His guilty plea came after federal prosecutors said in January that theywould not seek the death penalty, NBC News reported.
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El Paso Walmart.MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images
The gunman, the DOJ said in its release, admitted to writing a hate-filled manifesto against Latinos and immigrants before the shooting, where “he characterized himself as a white nationalist, motivated to kill Hispanics because they were immigrating to the United States.”
The manifesto, titled “An Inconvenient Truth,” was uploaded online just minutes before he began his rampage, the release said.
El Paso Walmart.Mario Tama/Getty Images
He also said that he intended to kill everyone he shot, per the DOJ, and admitted to selecting El Paso as the shooting site “to dissuade Mexican and other Hispanic immigrants from coming to the United States.”
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“Today, the Justice Department secured the guilty plea of Patrick Wood Crusius, a self-described white nationalist, for federal hate crime and firearms offenses in connection with the deadly mass shooting targeting people perceived to be Hispanic immigrants at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2019,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said Wednesday.
source: people.com
