The Latest: El Paso mayor says police investigating post

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EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The Latest on a shooting at an El Paso shopping complex (all times local):

9:55 p.m.

El Paso Mayor Dee Margo has confirmed police are investigating whether a racist screed posted online shortly before a shooting that killed 20 people in a busy shopping area was written by the suspect.

In it, the writer expresses concern that an influx of Hispanics into the United States will replace aging white voters, potentially turning Texas blue in upcoming elections and swinging the White House to the Democrats.

The writer is also critical of Republicans for what he described as close ties to corporations and degradation of the environment. Though a Twitter account that appears to belong to Patrick Crusius included pro-Donald Trump posts praising the border wall plan, the writer of the online document says his views on race predated Trump’s campaign.

Though the writer denied he was a white supremacist, the document says “race mixing” is destroying the nation and recommends dividing the United States into territorial enclaves determined by race.

The area where the shooting occurred is about 5 miles from the main border checkpoint with Ciudad Juárez, and the mayor said that tens of thousands of Mexicans legally cross the border each day to work and shop in El Paso.

7:35 p.m.

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says three Mexicans have been killed in the shooting in the border city of El Paso, Texas.

He tweeted Saturday that he sends “condolences to the families of the victims, both American and Mexican.”

El Paso is home to many Mexicans and sits directly across the border from Ciudad Juarez in the northern state of Chihuahua.

Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard says six Mexicans were wounded in the shooting. He identified three as 45-year-old Mario de Alba Montes, 44-year-old Olivia Mariscal Rodríguez and 10-year-old Erika de Alba Mariscal. Ebrard says the man and woman are from Chihuahua and all three are being treated at an El Paso hospital.

He says the other three wounded Mexicans were two men and a woman from Torreón, in Coahuila state, and Ciudad Juarez. Their names weren’t given.

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7:10 p.m.

Police in Texas have blocked streets near a home associated with the El Paso shooting suspect.

More than a dozen members of law enforcement could be seen outside the residence Saturday evening in Allen, including agents from the FBI, Texas Department of Public Safety and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

A woman answered the door at the gray stone house after a group of officers knocked. They appeared to speak with her briefly and then she closed the door. A short time later, the door reopened and officers entered.

Allen, located 20 miles north of Dallas, is an affluent community of about 100,000.

Alice Baland, who lives four houses down, said a retired couple lives at the home associated with the suspect. She described them as sweet people who regularly attend church.

Two law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity identified the suspect taken into custody as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius.

Officials say 20 people were killed and another 26 injured in a shooting Saturday in a busy shopping area in El Paso.

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7 p.m.

El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen says authorities are investigating a hate crime as among the possible motives in the shopping complex shooting that left 20 people dead and 26 more wounded.

The chief says authorities are looking into an online writing that indicated a potential connection to a hate crime to determine if it belonged to the suspected gunman.

Law enforcement officials have said a 21-year-old Dallas-area man named Patrick Crusius is in custody in the shooting. The officials were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press about his identity on condition of anonymity.

Police say most of the victims of Saturday’s attack appear to have been at a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall.

 

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