This archive report was first published on 4 August 2019.
On August 3, 2019, a gunman opened fire on shoppers at a packed Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, killing 20 people and wounding 26 others in the latest mass shooting in the United States.
President Donald Trump led the condemnation of the attack, calling it "an act of cowardice" that police are treating as a possible hate crime.
Witnesses described the gunman as a 21-year-old white man from Allen, Texas, who surrendered to police about a block away from the Walmart store.
Police confirmed that the suspect, identified as Patrick Crusius, was in custody and that a manifesto purportedly written by him included passages railing against the "Hispanic invasion" of Texas.
"The manifesto narrative is fuelled by hate," said Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso in Congress. "And it's fuelled by racism and bigotry and division," she added.
Trump, who is spending the weekend at his golf club in New Jersey, said the shooting was "not only tragic, it was an act of cowardice" and that "there are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people".
