EL PASO, Texas — The man who killed 23 people and injured more than a dozen others in a racist, targeted shooting inside a Walmart in El Paso was given 90 life sentences Friday after he pleaded guilty to dozen of charges, according to multiple reports.
Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty to hate crime and firearm charges in February. Authorities said he shot dozens of people inside the Walmart on Aug. 3, 2019, after driving from his hometown of Allen, Texas, more than 10 hours away, KTSM reported.
He showed no emotion Friday as his sentence was read, according to The Associated Press.
Victims and their families aired grief and anger in court before Friday’s sentencing.
Kathleen Johnson, whose husband 63-year-old David Johnson died in the shooting, said Wednesday that Crusius killed the family’s “provider and protector,” The Texas Tribune reported.
“I’ve had countless hours of counseling to deal with my PTSD. I don’t know if I’ll be the same, if that’s possible,” she said, according to the news site. “I have to remind myself every day that I’m safe from this killer. There are days when I can’t get out of bed.”
Crusius’s attorneys said their client was suffering from schizoaffective disorder, the El Paso Times reported. The chronic mental health condition is often characterized by symptoms of schizophrenia — including hallucinations or delusions — and symptoms of a mood disorder, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Prosecutors argued that the condition did not negate the shooting and that Crusius should have gotten treatment, the Times reported. On Friday, the judge said he would recommend that Crusius get mental health treatment while serving his sentences, according to KVIA-TV.
Crusius pleaded guilty to charges a short while after prosecutors said they did not plan to seek the death penalty in the case. He could still face a death sentence on state charges.
Authorities said Crusius targeted Latinos in the attack, pointing to a document he published online before the shooting.
“This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” the rant, titled “The Inconvenient Truth,” began, according to investigators. “They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by the invasion.”
Police said Crusius surrendered after he was stopped in a car a short distance from the scene of the attack and confessed to being the shooter.
