EL PASO, Texas (KXAN) — A federal grand jury has returned a new 90-count indictment against the man accused of opening fire in an El Paso Walmart, killing 23 people and injuring many others in August 2019, John F. Bash, U.S. Attorney for the District of Western Texas, announced Thursday.
It’s a superseding indictment against Patrick Wood Crusius, 21, and it includes 23 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, 23 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a violent crime, 22 counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill and 22 counts of use of a firearm during and in relation to a violent crime.
The indictment alleges that in June 2019, Crusius bought a semi-automatic rifle and 1,000 round of hollow point ammunition on the internet. The indictment continues that on August 3, after “substantial planning and premeditation,” Crusius drove from his home in Allen, Texas to the Walmart Supercenter on Gateway West Boulevard in El Paso to carry out the attack.
According to the indictment, Crusius uploaded a document he wrote called “The Inconvenient Truth” to the internet. It opened with the sentence, “This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” and continued, “They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by the invasion.”
The maximum penalties for the charges are death or life in prison. The attorney general will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later date, Bash said.
The case is being prosecuted by assistant U.S. Attorneys Ian Hanna and Greg McDonald of the Western District of Texas, and U.S. Department of Justice Trial Attorneys Tim Visser and Michael Warbel.