Patrick Crusius

Patrick Crusius
CCTV footage of Crusius exiting the Walmart after massacring 23 shoppers
Born
Patrick Wood Crusius

(1998-07-27) July 27, 1998
Allen, Texas, U.S.
Known forPerpetrator of the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting
Motive
ConvictionsFederal convictions:

State convictions:

SentenceFederal:
90 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole
State:
23 concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole
Details
DateAug 3, 2019
LocationsEl Paso, Texas, U.S.
TargetMexicans
Killed23
Injured22
Weapon

Patrick Wood Crusius (born July 27, 1998) is an American mass murderer, white supremacist, and domestic terrorist[7] who perpetrated the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting, in which he murdered 23 people and injured 22 others.[8][9][10] The attack has been described as one of the deadliest acts of violence against Latinos in U.S. history.[11][12][13] He lived with his family in Allen, Texas, in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex,[14][15][16] approximately 650 miles (1,050 km) from El Paso.[17]

After the shooting, Crusius drove to the intersection of Sunmount and Viscount. Once there, he stopped in a left-turn lane, exited the car with his hands raised, and identified himself as the shooter to Texas Rangers[18] and an El Paso motorcycle officer.[19] He was arrested and transported to police headquarters.

Crusius's likeness was used for a meme, Chudjak, a variant of the Wojak internet meme. The image was initially created to mock users of the 4chan /pol/ imageboard and circulated under labels such as "le /pol/ face".[20]

Background

Crusius registered to vote in 2016 as a Republican and had a Twitter account from 2017 that showed a photo of Donald Trump in the Oval Office. He also had a pro-Trump poll that included responses such as "#BuildTheWall, #NoSanctuaryCities, #KeepGitmoOpen and #BanSyrianRefugees".[21]

He graduated in 2017 from Plano Senior High School, and was enrolled at Collin College from 2017 until spring 2019.[17]

Weapons

Crusius legally purchased a GP WASR-10 semi-automatic rifle and 1,000 rounds of hollow-point ammunition online in June 2019.[6][22] During his first interrogation, he told detectives he had targeted Mexicans, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.[23][24][25][26][9] Crusius was also diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.[27]

Manifesto

Crusius has admitted to posting a manifesto, titled The Inconvenient Truth, on the online message board 8chan shortly before the shooting.[28][29][30] The post includes the suspect's name, and the manifesto identifies the type of weapon used in the attack.[31] Site moderators quickly removed the original post, though users continued to share copies.[31] Claiming to have been inspired by the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand that killed 51 people earlier the same year,[32] the author expresses support for the perpetrator of the Christchurch shootings[8][33][34] and bemoans grievances[35][36] such as environmental degradation,[4][37][33] "cultural and ethnic replacement",[34][38] and a "Hispanic invasion".[1][36][21]

The anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant manifesto promotes the white nationalist and far-right conspiracy theory called the Great Replacement,[1][8] often attributed to the French writer Renaud Camus.[32] While the document uses language about immigrants similar to that used by U.S. president Donald Trump,[39][n 1] such as referring to a migrant "invasion",[1][36][43] it states that the author's beliefs predate Trump's presidency, and that Trump should not be blamed for the attack.[25][37][21] The author's "racially extremist views", according to The New York Times, could be used to prosecute the shooting as a hate crime or domestic terrorism.[14]

The manifesto states that Democrats would soon control the United States partly due to an increasing Hispanic population,[37] an idea that had gained acceptance for years on right-wing radio shows.[8] Criticizing both the Democratic Party and Republican Party[37] for allowing corporations to "import foreign workers",[38] the author describes the shooting as an "incentive" for Hispanics to leave the country, which would "remove the threat" of a Hispanic voting bloc.[37] While primarily focused on ethnic and racial grievances,[4] the document also expresses fears of automation's effects on employment and blames corporations for overusing natural resources.[37]

2019 El Paso Walmart shooting

Main article: 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting

On August 3, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, United States. The gunman, 21-year-old Patrick Wood Crusius, shot 45 people, killing 23[n 2] and injuring 22 others.[48][49] The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime.[50][14] The shooting has been described as the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern American history.[51][52]

Crusius pleaded guilty to the state charges on April 21, 2025, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.[53]

The arrest warrant affidavit says Crusius waived his Miranda rights, confessed to detectives that he was the shooter, and admitted that he targeted "Mexicans" during the attack.[23][24][18]

Multiple investigations and jurisdictions were involved with the case. FBI officials in El Paso served multiple warrants in the Dallas area and interviewed acquaintances of Crusius in Dallas and San Antonio.[54]

Federal charges

On February 6, 2020, Crusius was charged with 90 federal charges: 22 counts of committing a hate crime resulting in death, 22 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder, 23 counts of a hate crime involving an attempt to kill, and 23 counts of use of a firearm during a crime.[51][55]

Crusius waived his federal bond hearing on February 12, 2020, during his first federal court appearance.[56] On July 23, 2020, Crusius entered a plea of not-guilty to federal charges.[39] He also waived his arraignment on those charges.[57]

In July 2020, the federal court granted a defense motion for more time to investigate "a number of 'red-flag' mitigation themes" as federal prosecutors decided whether to seek a death sentence. In the motion, the defense said that Crusius had "severe" lifelong neurological and mental disabilities; that he was treated with antipsychotic medication after his arrest; and that he was in a "psychotic state" when arrested.[58]

The trial was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the large volume of evidence.[59] At a February 2022 hearing, the defense team requested a trial start date of March 2025 or later, while federal prosecutors asked for a June 2023 trial date. Defense attorneys said they needed more time to comb through 1.76 million files and 763 gigabytes of video obtained through the discovery process, and told U.S. District Judge David C. Guaderrama that the defense might raise an insanity defense.[60] In January 2023, federal prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty for Crusius.[61] On February 8, 2023, Crusius pleaded guilty to 90 federal murder and hate crime charges.[62] Before sentencing, when asked if he felt remorse, he nodded.[63] On July 7, 2023, Crusius was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences.[64][65]

State charges

Crusius was indicted on capital murder charges by a Texas grand jury on September 12, 2019. He pleaded not guilty to capital murder charges at his arraignment on October 10, 2019, at the El Paso County Courthouse.[10] Mark Stevens, a San Antonio criminal defense attorney, was appointed by the state court to represent Crusius, along with defense attorney Joe Spencer.[66][67] On April 28, 2020, prosecutors announced they would be seeking a new capital murder charge following the recent death of a twenty-third victim after he spent nine months in the hospital.[68]

Proceedings in the state trial were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the massive amount of evidence in the case.[59]

El Paso district attorney Bill Hicks has stated that his office intends to pursue the death penalty in the case.[69][70]

In 2025, El Paso District Attorney James Montoya, who replaced incumbent Bill Hicks, announced he would no longer be seeking the death penalty.[71]

Notes

  1. ^
    • "The manifesto's author said their anger toward immigrants predates Donald Trump's presidency, but the language used bears much similarity with the president's vocabulary."[40]
    • "[S]ome of the language included in the document parroted Trump's own words, characterizing Hispanic migrants as invaders taking American jobs and arguing to 'send them back'."[21]
    • "Portions of the 2,300-word essay, titled 'The Inconvenient Truth', closely mirror Trump's rhetoric, as well as the language of the white nationalist movement, including a warning about the 'Hispanic invasion of Texas'."[41]
    • "But if Mr. Trump did not originally inspire the gunman, he has brought into the mainstream polarizing ideas and people once consigned to the fringes of American society [...] Mr. Crusius described legal and illegal immigrants as 'invaders' who are flooding into the United States, a term Mr. Trump has frequently employed to argue for a border wall."[42]
  2. ^ Twenty of the victims died on the day of the shooting, two others died in the following days, and the 23rd victim initially survived the shooting but later died of his wounds on April 26, 2020.[44][45][46][47]

References

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