This CCTV image obtained by KTSM 9 news channel shows the gunman identified as Patrick Crusius.
On August 3, at least 20 people were killed and 26 others were injured in a mass shooting at a supermarket in the US state of Texas.
A 21-year-old white man was arrested where the attack took place in the city of El Paso. Media sources have identified the suspect as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas.
The US Attorney for the Western District of Texas said that federal authorities are treating the El Paso mass shooting as a case of domestic terrorism. During the news conference, US Attorney John Bash revealed that the Justice Department is “seriously considering” bringing federal hate crime and federal firearm charges, which carry a possible death penalty.
“We’re going to do what we do to terrorists in this country, which is to deliver swift and certain justice,” Bash said.
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US authorities are also investigating a manifesto that they believe was posted by the suspect. The text posted on 8chan (MIRROR) describes a “cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion”, alluding to Hispanic people in the US.
The estimated population of El Paso County was 840,000 people as of July 2018, according to the US Census Bureau. An estimated 83% were Hispanic or Latino.
The 2,300-word document was attached to a post that said, “I’m probably going to die today.”
“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,” the document says revealing that the author was inspired by “The Great Replacement”, the manifesto of the gunman that was involved in the Christchurch mosque shootings [resulted in the deaths of 51 people and injures of 49 others].
Besides this the manifesto released by the El Paso attack has similarites with the document released by Brenton Tarrant, the perpetrator of the Christchurch attack.
“Statistically, millions of migrants have returned to their home countries to reunite with the family they lost contact with when they moved to America. They come here as economic immigrants, not for asylum reasons. This is an encouraging sign that the Hispanic population is willing to return to their home countries if given the right incentive. An incentive that myself and many other patriotic Americans will provide. This will remove the threat of the Hispanic voting bloc which will make up for the loss of millions of baby boomers. This will also make the elites that run corporations realize that it’s not in their interest to continue piss off Americans. Corporate America doesn’t need to be destroyed, but just shown that they are on the wrong side of history. That if they don’t bend, they will break,” the document claims in the section dedicated to the possible reaction to the shooting.
The both attacks seem to be a part of the new appearing trend influencing the security situation in First World countries targeted by hard-core neo-liberal propaganda designed to eliminate the dominating culture and instigate so-called ‘multicultural values’. In many cases, this situation is further complicated by variuos forms of ‘migrant crises’ and positive discrimination. This contributes to the radicalisation of a part of the population that has always been treated as more stable than the newcomers [that face various social and cultural difficulties after they leave their states of origin].
In the worst case scenario, this situation may lead to an increase of attacks aimed against migrants and those social groups that, in the eyes of attackers, seem to be benefiting from the dominating neo-liberal agenda.
