El Paso: A shooting in Walmart makes at least 20 dead | American News

At least 20 people were killed after a gunman opened fire in a busy Walmart store, filled with back-to-school shopping families in El Paso, a border town of Texas, sending panicky shoppers to flee .

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said 20 people had been killed and more than two dozen others injured. Mexican President Manuel Lopez Obrador said three Mexicans were among the dead and six among the wounded.

Abbott said it was "one of the deadliest days in Texas history."

A few hours later, on Sunday morning, police announced that nine people had been killed during a shooting in Dayton, Ohio.

A suspect in the El Paso case, a 21 – year – old white man from Allen, in the Dallas suburbs, more than 300 km away, was arrested after he was arrested. to be returned to the police. El Paso's police chief, Greg Allen, said that a "manifesto" was the subject of an investigation related to the suspect, as well as an investigation. on shootings as a potential hate crime.

"At the present time, we have a manifesto of this person that indicates, to a certain extent, that there is a connection between a potential hate crime," Allen said at a conference of press held on Saturday night, adding that he would not name the suspect.

The alleged journalist was named by Patrick Crusius, cited by police officials, the Associated Press and other media outlets.

Allen said the suspect had driven the nine-hour drive to El Paso.

El Paso is in western Texas, just on the border with Mexico. The diverse city has about 680,000 inhabitants and its population is 80% Latino. Ciudad Juárez, its twin city in Mexico, is right in front of the great barrier that separates their city centers. Every day, more than 23,000 pedestrians connect Ciudad Juárez to El Paso to get to work.

Police began receiving information about a shooting on Saturday at 10:39 am local time, police said. Shortly after, the police department tweeted that police were reacting to an active shooting scene and that it was advisable for people to stay away from the Cielo Vista shopping center, located south of El Paso International Airport.

The Walmart store, which is part of the mall complex, was occupied by families who were shopping for the new school year. El Paso police spokesman Robert Gomez estimated that there were up to 3,000 customers and 100 employees in the store.

Initial reports suggest that the weapon used was a rifle, said Gomez. At a late-night briefing near the Walmart car park, he told a crowd of journalists reunited in the rain that the bodies of the victims were still inside the store and that he It was possible that the death toll increased. Police confirmed that the shooting was limited to Walmart and was not taking place in other parts of the mall. Gomez stated that the suspect had complied with police demands when he had been apprehended.

Gomez refused to name the suspect and said he had not been charged yet. He also pointed out that it was also unclear whether the police had officially questioned him.

Jazmin Salas and his mother, Miranda Salas, who were doing back-to-school shopping together, said they had to hide together in a nearby shop before being escorted out by the police forces. l & # 39; order.

"This was very triggering," said Jazmin Salas at KTSM. The teenager said that she felt like she could not trust anyone. "There are crazy people everywhere."

Cell phone images broadcast by KTSM showed a man lying on the floor, with at least 10 shots in the background.

A Walmart employee described hearing gunshots and trying to get as many people out of the store as possible, and seeing customers and employees tipping each other over in their hurry. to escape. One of his colleagues was touched by hand, said the employee.

Another woman interviewed said she saw at least two or three bodies lying on the ground.

A man at a nearby shopping mall told KTSM that he heard gunshots and pulled his own pistol as he headed for the parking lot. He added that the police had briefly questioned him, thinking that he was the shooter.

A family reunion center was set up at a nearby college, the police said.

A senior official from the El Paso University Medical Center told The Associated Press that one of the 12 people who had been transported to the hospital as a result of the attack was died. Ryan Mielke, a spokesman for the hospital, said all victims had suffered traumatic injuries. He refused to provide additional details about the victims.

Mielke said two children aged two and nine were stabilized at the medical center before being transferred to the nearby El Paso hospital. Del Sol Medical Center reported treating another 11 patients.

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, Beto O'Rourke, who previously represented El Paso in Congress, said some responsibilities were falling to President Donald Trump, criticized for his racist speech and accused of fanning the flames of hate.

"Yes … he is racist and he feeds racism in this country … and that leads to violence," said O'Rourke, after leaving the countryside to return to his hometown.

Asset tweeted "condemn the heinous act of today" by calling it "act of cowardice".

The 2020 Democratic candidate and former Mayor of San Antonio, Julián Castro, said: "I am wholeheartedly with the residents of El Paso today, who are facing a devastating shootout. This attack is a tragic reminder of the inability of our government's most fundamental duty: to protect American lives. We need a firearms reform now.

The shooting in El Paso comes less than a week after a shootout at a garlic festival in Gilroy, California, killing three people and injuring 15 people.

Police authorities said that a 19-year-old man who previously lived in town had pioneered a path through a fence to enter the festival, and then opened fire with a military-style rifle. . Two Walmart employees were killed during a shootout on a Walmart in Mississippi last week.

Every day, 100 people are killed with guns in the United States and hundreds more are injured, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

Other Democratic presidential candidates expressed their indignation on Saturday over the fact that mbad shootings are increasingly spread all over the country and have accused the National Rifle Association and its congressional allies.

"It's not just today, it's happened several times this week. It happened here in Las Vegas where a madman killed about 50 people, "said Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, while he and 18 other White House candidates were in Nevada to address the issue. largest union of public employees in the country.

"All over the world, people are watching the United States and wondering what's going on? What is the state of mental health in America where, each time, we observe an indescribable horror? "

Agencies contributed to this report