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Patrick Crusius

Patrick Crusius (27 July 1998-) was an American white supremacist terrorist who killed over 18 and wounded over 22 in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas on 3 August 2019.

Biography[]

Patrick Crusius was born in Allen, Texas (a Dallas suburb) in 1998, and he was influenced by white supremacist beliefs and actions, including Brenton Tarrant's deadly attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019. Crusius, an idler who only wanted to have a job so that he could "get by" in life, was motivated to carry out his own act of domestic terror by the first Democratic presidential debates in July 2019, during which former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro and El Paso congressman Beto O'Rourke had a heated debate over Central American immigration. However, he did not want to carry out an attack in his hometown, instead planning on driving across the state to El Paso to target Mexicans in the border city. Crusius' mother called the police out of concern that her son owned assault weapons, but the police assured her that they were purchased legally without even visiting the home. Crusius published a manifesto on 8-Chan promising a response to the "Hispanic invasion of Texas", and, on 3 August 2019, he drove to the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso with an AK-47-type assault rifle and killed 22 people and wounded 24 in a mass shooting at the mall's Walmart. He was eventually taken into custody alive by police, ending his terrorist attack. He cooperated with the police and was forthcoming with his motives, saying that he was targeting Mexicans. On 7 July, 2023, he was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences, along with the possibility of the death penalty.

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