El Paso, Texas
Patrik Krusijus (24) pleaded guilty to nearly 50 federal hate crime charges earlier this year after targeting Latinos in a mass shooting in El Paso.
Crusius did not speak during the court hearing and did not react during the sentencing. A federal district court judge recommended that Crisius serve his sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.
Police said Crusius drove more than 1,100 kilometers from his home near Dallas to shoot Latinos inside and outside the store with a semi-automatic rifle. Before the attack, he posted racist messages online warning of an immigrant “invasion” of Texas.
In the years since the shooting, Republicans have called migrants crossing the US-Mexico border an “invasion,” rejecting criticism that the rhetoric is fueling anti-immigration attitudes and violence.
Crusius pleaded guilty in February to avoid the death penalty. However, prosecutors in Texas have announced they will seek the death penalty when Crucius is tried in state court. The start of that trial has not yet been scheduled.
As he was being led out of the courtroom, a family member of one of the victims shouted at Crusius, whom he called a “coward”.
“I want you to die,” she said Genesis Dayvillewho was 12 years old and was present when her football coach was killed, while her father was wounded.
The convict’s lawyer told the judge before the sentencing that his client’s thinking was out of touch with reality, and that he himself was troubled by his violent thoughts, and that at one point he was looking for ways to deal with his mental health, which led him to drop out of college.
Ahead of the sentencing, the families of the victims testified in federal court. They spoke directly to Crusius and described how their lives were disrupted by grief and pain. Some forgave the attacker. A man held a photograph of his murdered father and asked Crusius to look at it.
Her husband was also among the dead Berte Benavides, Arturo, with whom she was married for 34 years.
“You left children without parents, spouses without partners, and we still need them”Berta said to Crucius, whose family was not in the courtroom during the sentencing.
The attack in El Paso was one of America’s deadliest mass murders linked to hate crimes since 2006, according to databases from The Associated Press, USA Today and Northwestern University.
