Twenty people were killed and more than two dozen were injured in a mass shooting at an El Paso shopping center on Saturday, according to Texas and local authorities, CNN writes.
“Lives were taken who should still be with us today,” Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference near the Walmart and an adjacent shopping mall. Twenty-six people were injured, according to El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen.
“The ages and genders of all these people injured and killed are numerous in the age groups,” Allen said. “The situation, needless to say, is a horrific one.”
A 21-year-old white man from Allen, a suburb of Dallas about a 650-mile drive away, is in police custody, Allen said. Authorities are looking at potentially bringing capital murder charges against him.
The case also has a “nexus to a potential hate crime,” he said. “Right now, we have a manifesto from this individual that indicates to some degree a nexus to a potential hate crime,” Allen said.
FBI El Paso Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie said more investigative work was needed before determining whether there was a possible hate crime.
A source familiar with the investigative process said later Saturday that the FBI has opened a domestic terrorism investigation into the massacre. It will coincide with the state inquiry and Texas authorities will take the lead in the case.
The dead included three Mexican nationals, according to a tweet from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Six Mexicans were injured, Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard wrote on Twitter.
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