The Latest: Mexico vows legal action to protect nationals
The Latest on a mass shooting at an El Paso shopping complex (all times local):
12:20 p.m.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard says Mexico will take legal action to protect Mexicans and Americans of Mexican descent after the shooting in El Paso, Texas.
In a video statement, Ebrard called the shooting an ” act of barbarism ” and said the country’s first priority is attending to the impacted families.
Next, he said, Mexico plans to seek legal measures to protect Mexican nationals and Mexican-Americans in the U.S.
Mexican officials say three Mexican nationals were killed and another six were wounded in the Saturday shooting at a Texas Wal-Mart.
El Paso is a popular weekend shopping destination for Mexicans who live across the border, in Ciudad Juarez.
The shooter appears to have been targeting Hispanics and authorities are investigating it as a hate crome .
— Associated Press reporter Amy Guthrie in Mexico City.
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11:30 a.m.
President Donald Trump is ordering flags at half-staff in remembrance of the victims of two mass shootings in less than a day that killed at least 29 people and injured dozens more.
A proclamation released by the White House on Sunday says the nation shares ” in the pain and suffering of all those who were injured in these two senseless attacks. ”
The first attack Saturday at a shopping area in El Paso, Texas, killed at least 20 people. That was followed by another shooting in a nightlife district in Dayton, Ohio, which claimed nine lives.
Trump has been out of public view since both shootings. He has reacted to the attacks on Twitter.
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11 a.m.
A man and woman injured when a gunman opened fire in an El Paso, Texas, shopping area were there to raise money for their 5-year-old son’s baseball team.
Norma Coca tells Wichita, Kansas, television st6thon KWCH that her daughter and son-in-law were near the front doors of the Walmart on Saturday morning when they were shot.
Coca, who lives in Salina, Kansas, said her daughter, Jessica Coca Garcia, was shot three times in the leg. She says her son-in-law, Memo Garcia, was shot twice in the leg and once in the back. She said Saturday that her daughter was in stable condition and her son-in-law was in critical condition.
Jessica Coca Garcia’s father, Don Coca, said they have family in the El Paso area who were able to be with the couple. Don Cocoa says: ” She was just crying … I told her that our prayers are there and we’re on our way. ”
The couple’s son and 11-year-old daughter were also at the Walmart. They were not shot.
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10:45 a.m.
The police chief in El Paso is linking a racist, anti-immigrant screed posted online shortly before a shooting that killed 20 people to the suspect in custody.
Authorities have booked 21-year-old Patrick Wood Crusius on capital murder charges. El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen told reporters Sunday that ” we have to attribute that manifesto directly to him. ” Prosecutors say they’ll seek the death penalty.
The document posted online expressed concern that an influx of Hispanics into the United States will replace aging white voters, potentially turning Texas blue in elections and swinging the White House to the Democrats.
When asked whether the shooting was a hate crime, Allen said ” it’s beginning to look more solidly like that is the case. ”
Federal prosecutors say they’re treating the shooting as a domestic terrorism case.
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10:18 a.m.
A Justice Department official says the federal government is treating the El Paso shooting that killed 20 people as a ” domestic terrorist ” case.
U.S. Attorney John Bash said Sunday at a news conference in El Paso that the federal government is also investigating the attack at a shopping plaza with a view toward bringing federal hate crime charges.
Authorities have been working to confirm whether a racist, anti-immigrant screed posted online shortly before the attack was written by the suspected gunman, 21-year-old Patrick Wood Crusius .
El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza told reporters that the state of Texas also plans to seek the death penalty.
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9:50 a.m.
The Justice Department is seriously weighing federal hate crime charges against the El Paso shooting suspect that would carry the potential for a sentence of the death penalty.
That’s according to a person familiar with the department’s decision making process, who was not authorized to speak on the record and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.
A gunman armed with a rifle opened fire in an El Paso shopping area packed with as many as 3,000 people during the busy back-to-school season, leaving 20 dead and more than two dozen injured, police said. Law enforcement officials who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity identified the suspect as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius .
— Eric Tucker, reporting from Washington, D.C.
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10 a. m.
A hospital official in El Paso says at least three victims of a mass shooting at a shopping area that left 20 people dead remain in critical condition.
Dr. Stephen Flaherty said Sunday that a total of 11 victims were taken to Del Sol Medical Center. They ranged in age from 35 to 82 years old. More than two dozen people in all were injured in Saturday’s shooting, some of whom were treated elsewhere in the Texas border city.
Flaherty told reporters that ” a number of the patients ” being treated at Del Sol will need to return to the operating room, and potentially multiple times.
Jail records show that the suspected gunman, 21-year-old Patrick Wood Crusius , has been booked on capital murder charges.
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9 a.m.
Jail records show the gunman arrested in the El Paso shooting that left 20 people dead has been booked on capital murder charges.
El Paso County records Sunday showed that 21-year-old Patrick Wood Crusius was booked at the downtown jail in the Texas border city. There was no immediate indication that he had an attorney.
Police say more than two dozen people were also injured in the attack Saturday at an El Paso shopping area.
Authorities are investigating the possibility the shooting was a hate crime. They’re working to confirm whether a racist, anti-immigrant screed posted online shortly beforehand was written by Crusius .
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2 a.m.
A gunman armed with a rifle opened fire in an El Paso shopping area packed with as many as 3,000 people during the busy back-to-school season, leaving 20 dead and more than two dozen injured, police said.
Hours later, there was another mass shooting across the country. Police in Dayton, Ohio, said nine people were killed by a shooter who was shot to death by responding officers.
Authorities are investigating the possibility the Saturday shooting in El Paso was a hate crime, working to confirm whether a racist, anti-immigrant screed posted online shortly beforehand was written by the man arrested in the attack on the 680,000-resident border city.