El Paso shooting: Suspect Patrick Crusius was an 'extreme loner, irritable, and had a short temper'
The Texas Walmart shooting suspect who posted an online manifesto moments before killing at least 20 people in El Paso was reportedly an extreme loner. He was also "irritable, and had a short temper.”
21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas, wrote in the manifesto about the "invasion" of Hispanic immigrants and praised the gunman behind the Christchurch mosque massacre in New Zealand, the LA Times reports.
Crusius briefly attended Liberty High School and later graduated from Plano Senior High School. He then joined Collin College in McKinney, Texas, in 2017, according to local reports. A former neighbor of Crusius', Leigh Ann Locascio, said he always sat alone on the school bus and often denigrated other kids who played sports or joined the school band.
She said Crusius was “very much a loner, very stand-offish” and that he “didn’t interact a whole lot with anyone.”
Tony Locascio, her son, walked to school regularly with Crusius and his sister, the report states. According to Tony, Patrick Crusius always walked ahead or behind them and always kept to himself. While he never interacted much with them, he liked animals and kept snakes for pets.
“He wouldn’t talk to people. No one really knew him,” Tony recalled.
Jacob Wilson, another former classmate of Crusius', said he was “very strong-minded” in class and would often try to “take charge." However, his classmates refused to work with him as he was "irritable and had a bad temper."
Wilson, who is now 20, said other kids in school would regularly taunt him because of how he spoke and his worn-out clothes.
“Every time I looked up in class it was someone new speaking negatively to the kid, ‘Patrick that is dumb, stupid,’” Wilson remembered.
Speaking to The Times, Daniel Heo of Plano, Texas said he attended elementary school with Crusius and played basketball and soccer with him during lunch break.
Heo remembered his former classmate when he received a text from a friend about the shooting on Saturday.
“I’m shocked. I remember him being a nice kid,” Heo told the outlet.