The man suspected of opening fire in a Walmart Saturday traveled over 650 miles from his home in Allen, Texas, before walking into the El Paso store armed with an automatic rifle and killing 20 people.
The police have yet to confirm a motive for the attack, but but the suspect, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, is believed to have posted a hate-filled manifesto to an anonymous online message board 45 minutes before the shooting, citing his support for the New Zealand mosque terrorist and saying his attack “is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
Law enforcement officials said the suspect told them he wanted to kill as many Mexicans as possible, according to sources speaking to ABC News
With dozens of injured victims still lying in hospitals across El Paso, some of whom are in a critical condition, the police are trying to piece together the motive behind what is no longer even America’s most recent mass shooting.
READ: 20 people were killed in a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso
Crusius is currently in custody after police disarmed and arrested the suspect at the scene.
Who is Patrick Crusius?
Crusius was from Allen, Texas, some 660 miles from the location of the shooting.
Crusius attended Plano High School, which is located near the family home before moving to Collin County community college, which confirmed the suspect attended their school through spring 2019.
Public records list his last known address as his parents’ house, where he lived with his twin sister and brother.
Hours after the shooting, officers closed off a street in Allen where Crusius is thought to have resided.
Facebook and Twitter accounts thought to be linked to the shooter were taken offline hours after the shooting.
“Very much a loner”
According to former classmates and neighbors, who spoke to various media outlets, Crusius was a loner, who didn’t interact with his classmates and shunned organized school activities.
“He was very much a loner, very stand-offish” and “didn’t interact a whole lot with anyone,” Leigh Ann Locascio, a former neighbor, told the Los Angeles Times.
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Locascio’s son Tony, who often walked to school with Crusius and his sister, added: “He wouldn’t talk to people. No one really knew him.”
A posting on a LinkedIn page that appears to belong to the shooter gives another insight into Crusius’ state-of-mind:
“I’m not really motivated to do anything more than what’s necessary to get by. Working in general sucks, but I guess a career in Software Development suits me well. I spend about 8 hours every day on the computer so that counts as technology experience I guess. Pretty much gonna see what technology careers present themselves; go with the wind,” Crusius wrote in the “About” section of his page.
What is in his manifesto?
While the police have yet to confirm it was written by Crusius, a manifesto posted to controversial internet message board 8Chan hours before the shooting is widely believed to have been posted by the suspect.
The 2,300-word, four-page document, seen by VICE News, is called “An Inconvenient Truth” and is filled with typos and spelling mistakes.
It begins:
“In general, I support the Christchurch shooter and his manifesto. This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.”
The document claims “America is rotting from the inside out” before citing political and economic reasons for the attack.
He also gives personal reasons for the attack, saying he “My whole life I have been preparing for a life that currently doesn’t exist” claiming his job will be automated while “Hispanics will take control of local and state government.”
The document also features a “Gear” section which claims the gun used in the attack is an AK47.
While the manifesto criticized both major U.S. political parties, it does profess support for some Republican politicians.
Law enforcement agents investigating the shooting told NBC they are “reasonably confident” the manifesto was posted by Crusius and added that agents were aware of the manifesto before the shooting began and had connected it to a person, but the writing didn't name a target, time, place, or use the suspect's name.
“Right now we have a manifesto from this individual, that indicates to some degree, it has a nexus to potential hate crime,” El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said at a Saturday night press conference. He went on to add, however, that authorities were still working to “validate” that it was written by the suspected shooter.
Anonymous online sites like 8chan and 4chan have become a favorite place for mass shooters to post their statement of intent ahead of the shooting. The New Zealand mosque shooter posted his manifesto to 8chan as well as a link to a Facebook live stream of the shooting that killed 51 people.
Cover: Law enforcement officials block a road at the scene of a mass shooting at a shopping complex Sunday, Aug. 4, 2019, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/John Locher)