El Paso Shooting Suspect May Have Authored Manifesto Containing White Nationalist Talking Points
The suspect in a聽shooting that left 20 people dead at an El Paso Walmart may have posted and liked anti-immigrant leaning remarks聽on what appears to be his Twitter account.
Addititionally, police in west Texas are looking into whether the suspect posted an anti-immigrant 鈥渕anifesto鈥� online before the shooting.
identified the suspect as Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas, citing unspecified police sources.
A Twitter account bearing the suspect鈥檚 name contains liked tweets that include聽a 鈥淏uildTheWall鈥� hashtag, a聽photo using guns to spell out 鈥淭rump,鈥� and posts from Paul Joseph Watson, a far-right Youtuber who works with聽Alex Jones聽at InfoWars.
Authorities are examining a four-page document that several media outlets are calling a manifesto. 聽Authorities are trying to determine the document鈥檚 authenticity and whether there are ties to the suspect.
The document mentions the suspect in the Christchurch, New Zealand mass shooting at two mosques that left 51 people dead in March. The suspect in that shooting has pleaded not guilty.
The manifesto allegedly linked to the El Paso shooting suspect聽contains white nationalist talking points on 鈥渆thnic displacement" and "race mixing" and refers to immigrants to the United States as "invaders."
It also makes brief mention of using a WASR-10 Kalashnikov pattern rifle, which is consistent with the security camera footage that shows the alleged shooter shouldering an AK-47 rifle.
The shooting took place just after 11聽a.m. local time聽at a store in El Paso as parents and children took advantage of a tax-free shopping day before school begins. El Paso, which is almost 80% Hispanic, is just 12 miles from the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez.
Police have not yet issued a statement on the veracity of the alleged manifesto or its relationship to the suspect.
The shooting took place in the city of 840,000 just across the Rio Grande River from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The U.S.-Mexico border has been a big issue on the far right, with talk of 鈥渋nvaders鈥� from predominantly Spanish-speaking countries crossing into the United States.
Photo credit: AP Images
This post has been updated to reflect the most recently reported number of fatalities from the shooting.
