Where is Patrick Crusius now? El Paso Walmart shooter agrees to pay more than $5.5M in restitution
EL PASO, TEXAS: Patrick Crusius, the 24-year-old gunman responsible for one of the deadliest attacks on Latinos in modern US history, has agreed to pay more than $5.5 million in restitution to those impacted by the shooting. He was being held at El Paso County Detention Facility, and the judge who sentenced him recommended him to be placed at the ADX Florence maximum security prison in Colorado.
According to new court filings, Crasius reached an agreement with prosecutors to pay $5,557,005.55 to claimants in the federal case. The agreement has been approved by Federal Judge David Guaderrama.
The document identifying the claimants was sealed. Crusius killed 23 people and wounded 22 others at an El Paso Walmart in 2019.
What did Patrick Crusius do?
Crasius barged into the Walmart in El Paso near the US-Mexico border in 2019, with the sole purpose of killing Mexican people and immigrants.
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, stated that at least eight of the dead victims were Mexicans.
Crusius is also believed to have posted hate messages online minutes before the shooting, where he promoted xenophobic and White supremacist beliefs.
Conviction of Patrick Crusius
Crusius pleaded guilty to 90 federal charges from the El Paso shooting, which includes hate crimes and firearms offenses, back in February 2023. He was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences in July.
The hearing lasted for roughly 40 minutes. Defense lawyer Joe Spencer addressed the court, stating that Crusius took responsibility for his grave actions and that his rampage was on account of his severe mental illness.
“Patrick will leave prison in a coffin. The only question is, will it be on God’s time or man’s time?” he asked, according to CNN.
The defense attorney’s assertion was vehemently rejected by the prosecution, with one US attorney calling Crusius a “vessel of insidious violence” and “danger to us all.”
Federal prosecutor Ian Martinez Hanna told the court the massacre was “premeditated with every detail laid out in a document of his creation.”
Spencer later told reporters his client is not a racist but instead suffers from a “broken brain” and “history of severe mental illness.”
“This isn’t something we invented … this is something that has been in the works since childhood. This has been documented,” he added.
Crusius is still set to be tried in a state case against him, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. The date of the trial is yet to be set.