The death toll in a Walmart shooting in El Paso, Texas, rose to 22 on Monday after two more victims died. Officials updated totals to 22 killed and 24 injured. David Shimp, executive officer at Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso, said one patient died late Sunday night and another Monday morning, ABC News reports.
The victims’ names were not immediately released.
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As previously reported, the death toll rose by one after the El Paso Police Department announced at 11:35 a.m. ET that a victim succumbed to their injuries. The account tweeted again at 12:52 p.m. ET that just after 10 a.m., “another victim passed away,” bringing the total to 22.
Just after 1000 another victim passed away. The total is now at 22
— EL PASO POLICE DEPT (@EPPOLICE) August 5, 2019
News of the latest death came just hours after the El Paso County Coroner’s Officer removed the last victim’s body from the premises.
The suspected shooter was identified by authorities as Patrick Cruisius, 21, of Allen, Texas. He is being held on a charge of capital murder, according to court records. Josh Bash, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, said Sunday that federal authorities are investigating the incident as an act of “domestic terrorism,” meaning the suspect was allegedly intent on “coercing and intimidating a civilian population.”
Bash said federal authorities are considering bringing hate crimes and federal firearms charges against Crusius that carry the death penalty, ABC News reports. Police said Crusius drove more than 600 miles from his home in Dallas to El Paso to kill as many Mexicans as he could. Investigators believe that Crusius is the same man who allegedly posted a four-page racist, anti-Immigrant document on the dark website 8chan before launching the attack.
At least seven of the 22 people killed were Mexican nationals, and nine additional Mexicans were among the wounded.
The latest news of the climbing death toll in El Paso brings the total number of people dead to 31 after nine were killed in the early hours of Sunday morning in downtown Dayton. The shooter, Connor Betts, wore body armor and a mask and carried 250 bullets during his rampage, which police said they responded to in less than one minute. Betts’ sister was included in the list of victims.
At least two dozen other people were injured in Dayton Sunday morning, including 14 people who suffered gunshot wounds. Other injuries involved people who were trampled or hit by flying glass as they ran for safety, Dayton Police Chief Richard S. Biehl said. He also said that based on recovered shell casings, Betts fired at least 41 rounds before police officers responded, firing a total of 58 rounds at him near the entrance of a nightclub.
Betts’ rifle had been modified with canisters that allowed it to fire in quick succession.
“It’s fundamentally problematic to have level of weapons in a civilian environment,” Biehl said, as per The Washington Post, adding the gun appears to have been purchased on the Internet and then modified in such a way “as to avoid any legal prohibitions.”
Betts had traveled with his sister, Emily, and her male companion to Dayton’s Oregon district and parked a few blocks from where the shooting would begin. At some point, Betts left the group and later opened fire. Emily’s male companion was injured when he was shot in the lower torso and he remains hospitalized.
Biehl said authorities are still investigating a possible motive for the shooting. “It just seems to defy believability that he would shoot his own sister, but it is also hard to believe he didn’t recognize his sister, so we just don’t know,” Biehl said.
Addressing the shootings in a press conference at the White House Monday morning, President Donald Trump called them “an attack upon our nation and a crime against all of humanity.”
“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” the president said. “These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America.”
