El Paso mayor calls shooter 'deranged' and 'pure evil'
Mayor Dee Margo reacts to the deadly mass shooting at a Walmart in Texas.
El Paso's Republican Mayor Dee Margo called the infamous Walmart shooting suspect "pure evil" during an interview on "Fox News Sunday," following the deadly bloodbath that took place in his city on Saturday.
The suspected gunman, identified by the FBI as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas, shot 20 innocent civilians dead and injured 26 others after he calmly walked into the store and began to open fire.
"I haven't been informed by the police or the FBI about this individual at all, other than knowing that he came from the Dallas area, he was deranged, he was evil, but I can assure you that I am convinced no one from El Paso would have ever done this," he told host Chris Wallace. "It is not our nature, our culture and I don’t know about him. Pure evil, as far as I can characterize it."
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Wallace mentioned a manifesto discovered by authorities, stating that the shooting was fueled by the suspect's fear of an "invasion" by illegal immigrants, and Margo said the city's large Hispanic population played a part in their targeting.
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"We are the largest U.S. city on the Mexican border. Our region is a population inclusive of what is Mexico and southern New Mexico of two and a half million people. El Paso is 84 percent Hispanic, to begin with," he replied.
"We have shoppers that come over every day from Mexico to purchase goods and services here. So we’ve been this way — we’re one region for 350 years. It’s hard to define El Paso. We're totally unique for North America."
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Margo also thanked law enforcement for their tactical execution along with their vigilance and resolve, before saying how difficult it will be to bounce back from the 20 deaths.
"It’s tough anyway you look at it. Nobody prepares for this. I certainly, as mayor, have not been prepared for something like this," he said earlier in the interview.
"Thank heavens our law enforcement was prepared. It's been stated they received a call at 10:39 -- were there at 10:45, and he was apprehended at 11:06 a.m. So I think that’s masterful work from their training. But it’s tough, it's tough. I don’t think it’s going to get any easier until after we have our 20 funerals."