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el paso shooting is being treated as a case of 'domestic terrorism

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El Paso shooter faces the death penalty in a 'domestic terrorism' case

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The suspect in Saturday's shooting at an El Paso shopping center faces capital murder charges and will be eligible for the death penalty, El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza said in a news conference.

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At least 22 people were killed when a gunman opened fire Saturday at a Walmart and shopping center in El Paso. They were U.S. citizens and Mexican citizens. One was identified by authorities as a German citizen.

Below are stories of some of the victims.

We'll continue to update these profiles as we learn more.
[The lives lost in Dayton, Ohio]
Jordan Anchondo, 24, and Andre Anchondo, 23

For Jordan and Andre Anchondo of El Paso, Saturday was meant to be a day of celebration.

The couple had just marked their first wedding anniversary, according to Andre's older brother, Tito Anchondo. Their oldest daughter was turning 6, Tito Anchondo said, and the couple was ready to show off their new house. Friends and family were invited to a big party on Saturday, but the Anchondos never made it.

On Saturday, after dropping the 6-year-old off at cheerleading practice, the Anchondos headed with their infant son to a Walmart for school supplies and party decorations. There, a gunman opened fire, killing Jordan.

The moment he heard about the shooting, Tito Anchondo began calling his brother and sister-in-law but got no response. Several hours later, he received a call from authorities, who asked him to identify Jordan. He said he rushed to the hospital with the rest of his family to find Jordan, who had died, and his infant nephew, who survived but had several broken bones. Andre was not there.

On Sunday night, family members confirmed to The Post that Andre was killed too.

Andre had just started to turn his life around, the brother said. The El Paso native had been in a rut for a few years, but that changed when he met Jordan.

"She was his support system," Tito said. "When he met Jordan, it gave him more reason to get on track with his life. He got his life in order."

In 2018, Andre left the family auto-repair business to set up his own shop, Andre House of Granite and Stone. Business for his brother had been good, Tito said.

In his free time, Andre worked to build a house for his young family, laboring under the Texas sun hours at a time to get everything just right.

Jordan was a stay-at-home mother of three, Tito said: The 6-year-old and 1-year-old daughters were from earlier relationships, and she had the 2-month-old with Andre. Jordan's sister, Leta Jamrowski, told the Associated Press that based on the baby's injuries, it appeared that Jordan died while trying to shield the baby from the shooter.

"He pretty much lived because she gave her life," Jamrowski, 19, told the AP.

"We're angry, we're sad," Tito said. "There's disbelief. There are just no words."
- Rebecca Tan and Meagan Flynn
Arturo Benavides, 60

Arturo Benavides lived for his family, his dog and upside-down pineapple cake.

He was running an errand Saturday with his wife, Patricia Benavides. The El Paso couple were almost out of the Walmart, paying for their groceries at a register, when a gunman opened fire, according to a great-niece.

Someone pushed Patricia Benavides, 63, into a bathroom stall and she was able to get away unhurt, accompanied by police, said Jacklin Luna, the great-niece. Arturo Benavides, 60, did not escape.

His extended family gathered and waited in agony for hours until they heard official word Sunday morning: Benavides "wasn't able to make it out," Luna, 23, said through tears in an interview with The Washington Post.

Patricia Benavides is still inconsolable, Luna said, mourning the loss of her soul mate, a man characterized first and foremost by his total and unswerving devotion to family. They had been married more than 30 years.

"If anyone ever needed anything, he was the first one there: If we needed a ride, a shirt or a meal, he was always the first person to offer anything he had," Luna said. "Whenever we all went out to eat, he would pay the whole bill, he didn't want anyone to spend a dime."

Every week, Arturo Benavides would phone everyone in the family to see how they were doing, Luna said. He wanted to know: How are your grades in school? How is work, did you get that promotion?

Benavides had retired about two years ago after working as a bus driver for Sun Metro, El Paso's public transit agency, Luna said. Before that, she said, he served in the Army, an experience that left him eager to spin military stories for anyone and everyone who would listen.

He loved to regale family members with tales of any kind, Luna said, calling him "a natural storyteller." Retirement gave him more time to savor and share memories of his childhood. He hadn't wanted to stop working, but his wife insisted. Luna said Benavides was slowly coming to realize the benefits of leisure time. Luna's sister had recently given Benavides a dog, a husky mix called Milo, and that helped, Luna said.

"He was starting to enjoy his time just at home, he would sit outside with his oldies music - he loved the '60s and the '70s - and his dog, who he just fell in love with," Luna said. "Something as simple as that would make him happy."

Benavides would have turned 61 in October, and Luna already knew what she planned to make him. Every year for his birthday, he requested the same thing: a pineapple upside-down cake. The pair had long ago bonded over food. When Luna was growing up, Arturo Benavides used to make her morning waffles on weekends. She cannot quite believe she will never make the man she called "Nino" a pineapple upside-down cake ever again.
- Hannah Natanson
Jorge Calvillo García, 61

Jorge Calvillo García was a family man. He went to Walmart on Saturday morning because his granddaughter Emily was outside the store to raise money for her soccer team. Calvillo was going to bring food and water for the collection event.

Calvillo's life spanned the border. He was from Gómez Palacio in the Mexican state of Durango but had spent years in Ciudad Juarez, according to the Mexican newspaper Vanguardia. Recently, he moved to El Paso, where he was working as an accountant. But he still visited Mexico frequently - most recently for a niece's wedding in La Laguna, Durango.

"A week ago he was with us, it was the most important day of our lives and he was supporting us at all times. He left a beautiful human being, an excellent dad, uncle, husband and brother. It's not goodbye here, but see you soon," wrote his sister Elizabeth Calvillo on Facebook.

When gunfire erupted at the Walmart, Calvillo shielded his granddaughter, said Raul Ortega, his nephew, according to a KFOX-TV report.

A son who was with him at Walmart, Ever Calvillo Quiroga, has had four surgeries and remains in critical condition, according to Vanguardia.

Calvillo had three children: Ever, Jorge and Alberto.

"He always dedicated himself to his family and his work," said Juan Martín, a cousin.

Martín said Calvillo will cross the border one more time, his ashes taken from El Paso to Juarez.
- Kevin Sieff and Gabriela Martinez
Leo Campos, 41, and Maribel Hernandez, 56

Maribel Hernandez, an El Paso native, had a happy childhood, relatives said. Her marriage to Leo Campos 16 years ago only made her happier.

The couple led a simple life, said her younger brother Albert Hernandez. Campos worked in a call center during the day while Hernandez took care of the house.

For several years, Campos attended classes at a local school - training to get certified as an elementary school sports coach - and his wife would help him with his essays late into the night, Albert Hernandez said.

On her birthday, or sometimes for no reason at all, Campos would romance her with long letters and large bouquets of flowers. When they could spare the time, they traveled to South Padre Island on the Gulf Coast. Hernandez loved the beach, her brother said.

On Saturday, after dropping their dog off at the groomers, they went to the El Paso Walmart. There, they were slain.

"It's very surreal," Albert Hernandez said. "These were good people that suffered."

Campos had grown up in Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley. Friends and educators who knew him in high school recalled him as a loving family man, gregarious football and soccer player and fantastic Mexican folkloric dancer.

"Leo was well liked and a role model to many athletes that looked up to him, including me," Jesse Zambrano, board president of the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District, said in a statement.

Campos danced with a troupe that performed in parks, schools and nursing homes. A former teacher, Alicia L. Cron, wrote: "Rest in Peace my Folkloric Dancer while you dance in the heavens. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!"
- Rebecca Tan and Morgan Krakow
Adolfo Cerros Hernández, 68, and Sara Esther Regalado, 66

Sara Esther Regalado and Adolfo Cerros Hernández were a married couple who lived in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The husband was originally from the Mexican city of Aguascalientes, while the wife was a native of Juarez.

"With profound pain in our hearts, we inform you that our beloved parents, Adolfo Cerros Hernández and Sarita Regalado, were victims of the tragic shooting" at the Walmart in El Paso, their daughter, Sandra Ivonne Cerros, wrote on Facebook.

"We are devastated, these have been very difficult hours," she said, asking for privacy for the family as they grieved.
- Mary Beth Sheridan
Angelina Englisbee, 86

Angelina Englisbee, matriarch of a large family, spent most of her life on a quiet street in El Paso that was less than a 10-minute drive away from the Walmart, neighbors said.

Christina Bustamante, who lived across from the 86-year-old for more than 50 years, said she was a quiet, respectful neighbor. She went to nearby St. Pius Roman Catholic Church every Sunday and led a peaceful life, Bustamante said.

Larry Walters, a former in-law relative, described Englisbee as a strong person. After her husband died of a heart attack, she raised seven children on her own, said Walters.

Englisbee was in Walmart and on the phone with one of her children minutes before the shooting began, according to CNN.
- Rebecca Tan
Raul Flores, 83, and Maria Flores, 77

In the 60 years they were married, Raul Flores and Maria Flores rarely spent a day apart.

They met in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez as young adults, raised their family around the hills of California's San Gabriel Valley. Together, in 1959, they weathered the death of their 2-week-old infant, Alejandra, to pneumonia. Together, they retired two decades ago to a large, brightly-lit house in El Paso. Together, they cooked tamales and brought spindly plants back to life. They cradled and nursed three children, 11 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren - and were waiting for one on the way.

The only comfort their relatives take in the couple's death was that, in the end, Raul Flores and Maria Flores were not separated.

"They didn't deserve to go this way, but for me, I take comfort in knowing that they went together," said Raul Flores Jr., the couple's oldest son.

Flores Sr. was scheduled to have open-heart surgery Monday. Members of the Flores family, who were split between Texas and California, had come to El Paso to be with him. On the day of the shooting, the couple was at Walmart buying airbeds for visiting relatives, said Flores Jr.

"I tell myself, maybe it's the Lord's way of doing it," the 55-year-old said, voice cracking. "Maybe He knew my father wasn't going to make it during the surgery, and maybe He knew that if anything happened to my father, my mother would be destroyed. Maybe that's why He decided to take them together."

Born in the Mexican city of Jiménez, Flores Sr. worked as a painter most of his life. He had a strong work ethic and even in retirement, would occasionally do painting jobs.

Fifteen years ago, on the day before his first open-heart surgery, his children found him out in the sun, planting grass.

"That's how he was, he was always working, always taking care of family," Flores Jr. remembered.

Leticia Saldana, 57, said her father worked to make sure he could take care of Maria, "his queen."

Flores Sr. was sweeping floors at a tailor shop in 1950s Ciudad Juarez when he first saw Maria walk by, Saldana said. The soft-spoken young man would bring his broom near to Maria to catch her attention until one day, she was "swept off her feet," Saldana said, laughing in between tears.

After they got married, Flores Sr. pampered Maria. He bought her shoes, clothes and bags that filled three closets, leaving just a little corner for his own items. And in return, Maria - Grandma Flores, as she was known - doted on the rest of the family.

Born in Tlahualilo, Maria loved to cook and had a knack for knowing exactly what everybody in her family loved to eat. Grandchildren who called ahead to say they were visiting would often arrive to find plates of their favorite dishes waiting for them while Maria prepared dessert in the kitchen, dancing as she baked to Elvis Presley or Marco Antonio Solis.

"They were so much alike, my parents," Saldana said. "They were inseparable."

"My whole life, that was my goal, to have a marriage, a love like that."
- Rebecca Tan
Alexander Gerhard Hoffmann, 66

Alexander Gerhard Hoffmann was identified by El Paso authorities as a German national. Germany's consulate in Washington confirmed his citizenship but gave no further details, and little other information about him was immediately available.
- Rebecca Tan
David Johnson, 63

David and Kathy Johnson were best friends, their relatives said.

David worked long hours on weekdays to support his family, said his nephew Dominic Patridge. But on weekends, he made sure to carve out time to spend with Kathy.

The couple, with their 9-year-old granddaughter, were in the checkout line at Walmart in El Paso when shooting began Saturday. Johnson told his wife and granddaughter to get on the floor, according to relatives. When he was shot, the Army veteran fell toward them to give them cover, said Patridge, 35.

Kathy Johnson and the child were able to escape, but on Sunday afternoon, the family was notified David Johnson had died.

"He was a completely selfless, dedicated family man," Patridge said. "He put everybody before himself."

The Johnsons were "a perfect match," the nephew said.

"He always made her feel like she was the most important person in the world," he said. "You could just tell from the way he looked at her, he was completely in love."

In the little free time he had, Johnson liked to watch golf tournaments and NASCAR races.

Johnson told relatives in recent months he looked forward to retirement, to finally having more time to spend with his wife.
- Rebecca Tan
Luis Juarez, 90

At 90 years old, Luis Juarez had lived the American Dream.

He immigrated to the United States, got his citizenship, bought a home and made a career as an iron worker, according to a family statement. He and his wife of 70 years, Martha, raised a family that included seven children, 20 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren.

Before retiring, Juarez had helped erect many buildings in El Paso and Los Angeles, his family said. He also worked on the country's railroads and locomotives.

"We are celebrating the life of an American who served to build our country," the family said in a statement.

Luis Juarez and Martha Juarez, who lived in El Paso, were at Walmart on Saturday. Martha Juarez, 87, was recovering Tuesday afternoon from injuries.

Luis Juarez's family remembered him as generous, understanding, hard-working and curious. He was one of the "kindest, sweetest, loving men" his family had ever known, according to the statement. He never stopped building - even continuing many welding projects after he retired - and the family said they expected him to live to 100.

"We were looking forward to many more years and that was stolen away from us," the family said.
- Laurel Demkovich
Maria Eugenia Legarreta, 58

Maria Eugenia Legarreta came from a well-known business family in the northern Mexican city of Chihuahua. But she was a full-time homemaker focused on her four children.

"She never stopped smiling. She was a wonderful woman, very dedicated to her children, and a wonderful cook," said a family friend, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of concern about the family's privacy.

Legarreta was going to the El Paso airport Saturday to pick up her youngest child, a 16-year-old girl, who was returning from a trip to Europe.

The mother decided to stop by Walmart on the way to do some quick shopping, according to the friend and news reports.

Legarreta will be remembered for being an outstanding parent, said the friend. "Above all, she was a great mother."
- Gabriela Martinez and Mary Beth Sheridan
Ivan Filiberto Manzano, 41

Ivan Filiberto Manzano, a native of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was known for his enthusiasm for his business projects, and devotion to his wife and two children, aged 5 and 9.

Manzano had worked in sales and marketing for years. One day, he approached a colleague at Megaradio, a broadcasting firm in Juarez, about forming their own business.

"We decided to become entrepreneurs and not employees, and we founded Grupo IVER," a marketing firm, said the colleague, Vianney Rico. They pulled together the idea for the business in an afternoon, "at one desk with two chairs," she said. Manzano also had a business selling medical equipment.

Manzano had held jobs in Argentina and in Monterrey, Mexico, but eventually returned to his hometown. He was known for hard work.

"It didn't matter what the hour was, he was always in his office or in the field, taking care of his projects," said his former colleague at Megaradio, Salvador Jonapa.

But Manzano also was an "exemplary father" to his son and daughter, Jonapa said.

When he wasn't working or with his family, Manzano enjoyed running, and took part in several marathons in the city, his former colleagues said.
- Mary Beth Sheridan
Gloria Irma Márquez, 61

Gloria Irma Márquez was born in the Mexican state of Sinaloa and moved to the United States more than two decades ago. Her first two children were born in Mexico, her second two in the United States.

"The kids were everything to her," said John Ogaz, her companion of 11 years. "She was very protective of the people she loved."

When Ogaz met Márquez, he was living in a trailer. Márquez, who earned a modest income as a health care assistant for elderly patients, helped him move into a home. He was a U.S. citizen born in El Paso, but Márquez, a recent immigrant, helped him carve out a comfortable life in America. They considered each other husband and wife, he said, even though they never formally married.

They lived together in El Paso, surrounded by children and grandchildren.

"She was such a generous person," he said. "The patients always asked for her. They always wanted Gloria."

On Saturday, Ogaz and Márquez went to Walmart together. They split up minutes before the shooter entered the building, with her heading to the ATM and him waiting for her at McDonald's. For five hours, he called her phone from the parking lot.

Through the years Márquez's family remained close, even though immigration laws often kept them physically apart. One of her daughters was unable to cross into the United States to visit her mother. She was recently granted a visa to attend Marquez's funeral, Ogaz said.
- Kevin Sieff and Gabriela Martinez
Elsa Mendoza, 57

Elsa Mendoza was a teacher and school principal who lived and worked in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. She was in El Paso on Saturday visiting family, according to local press reports. She had stopped by Walmart to pick up a few things from the supermarket section, leaving her husband and son in the car, according to the Mexican newspaper Milenio.

She never emerged from the store.

Mendoza was originally from the town of Yepomera, in the northern state of Chihuahua. Her expertise was in special education, but she was principal of a school - the Club de Leones y Rafael Veloz elementary school - with a range of students. She was known for her optimism.

"She always, always had a smile," said Rosa María Hernández Madero, a colleague who heads the local branch of the national teacher's union. Mendoza "used to say, 'Things done with love are done better,' and she was always ready to help."

The slain teacher's husband, Antonio de la Mora, a professor at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez, bade farewell to his wife in an emotional message on social media.

"I say goodbye to my companion, the most wonderful woman, a person full of light who will continue to illuminate our path," he wrote.

Mexico's education minister, Esteban Moctezuma, said in a tweet that "the Mexican education community is in mourning the irreparable loss of teacher Elsa Mendoza."
- Mary Beth Sheridan and Gabriela Martinez
Margie Reckard, 63

Margie Reckard was mourned as a devoted companion and mother.

"I've been lost. I'm like a puppy run away from its momma. She took care of me," Tony Basco, her partner of 22 years, told Reuters as he planted a cross for her in a shrine that emerged at the El Paso Walmart. Basco said Reckard was a sweet, loving woman.

A son, Dean Reckard, said on Facebook he was raising money to come to El Paso to lay his mother to rest.

San Antonio In-Home Health Care said in a statement on Facebook that Reckard was "one of our own." The health-care provider added: "She will always be loved and missed."
- Laurel Demkovich
Javier Amir Rodriguez, 15

Javier Amir Rodriguez was among the youngest killed in El Paso, his uncle Cesar Serrano told The Washington Post.

The Clint Independent School District confirmed his death in a tweet Monday. "We are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of one of our students," the district said. "Our heartfelt condolences and prayers are with his parents and family."

Javier was just weeks away from starting his sophomore year of high school. "He was such a loving boy," Elvira Rodriguez, his aunt, told the Arizona Republic.

Soccer was a major part of Javier's routine at Horizon High School, said his former coach Juan Ferreira. He used to come to school early to play with friends, skip lunch to practice with the varsity girls team, and then head off to his own junior varsity training in the afternoon.

"This boy was like as an energy bunny," Ferreira said. "And for him, it was nothing but soccer."
- Hailey Fuchs and Rebecca Tan
Teresa Sanchez, 82

Teresa Sanchez was a U.S. citizen, contrary to initial data from authorities. No further information about her was immediately available.

Juan de Dios Velázquez, 77

Juan de Dios Velázquez, a Mexican retiree, was fatally wounded while protecting his wife, Estela, from the shooter in the Walmart massacre, according to relatives.

The couple had moved from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso six months ago, after they received U.S. citizenship, family members told Mexican media. Velázquez was a native of the town of Sombrerete, in the Mexican state of Zacatecas.

On Saturday, the couple were grocery shopping when the gunman opened fire. Velázquez's first thought was for his wife, relatives said.

"I've been told that, when he realized that the man was going to attack them, my uncle moved in front of her, to protect her," Velázquez's niece Norma Ramos told the daily La Jornada.

Velázquez was shot in the back and taken to a hospital, where he underwent three operations, Ramos said. He died Monday. His 65-year-old wife was shot in the stomach but survived.

The couple has four children and several grandchildren.
- Mary Beth Sheridan
Credits: Washington Post Staff

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At least 22 people were killed when a gunman opened fire Saturday at a Walmart and shopping center in El Paso. They were U.S. citizens and Mexican citizens. One was identified by authorities as a German citizen. Below are stories of some of the victims. We'll continue to update these profiles as we learn more.

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Investigators are split on whether the Dayton shooter intentionally killed his sister, who was one of the first nine he killed, the city's police chief said Tuesday. Text messages show that the gunman knew where his sister, Megan Betts, was when he began shooting, but what's not known is whether he could see her standing under an umbrella at a taco stand, Chief Richard Biehl said at a news conference.

The evidence is so far inconclusive on whether the 24-year-old gunman targeted his 22-year-old sister, Megan, two hours after they arrived with a friend at Dayton's Oregon entertainment district. "If we can't seem to make that call conclusively - that we're divided about how, whether that was intentional or not - I think it's inconclusive," Biehl said.

Authorities have been trying to piece together a motive and other factors that led to the mass shooting Aug. 4.

Police show new video of Dayton gunman

A video of pieced-together surveillance from businesses showed Connor Betts before the shooting with his sister and their friend, and again after he went to his car and changed into a black hoodie, put on body armor and retrieved a gun from the trunk.

The gunman was very familiar with the area and its night spots and had been there the night before, Biehl said. It's clear he had a plan for the mass shooting, although why he chose that place at that time is still being investigated, he added.

Nine people were killed and 17 others were wounded before police killed the gunman, Biehl said. Previously, police and hospital officials said at least 14 people suffered gunshots.

The coroner's report will determine whether anyone besides the shooter was hit by police, Biehl said.

Federal charges announced against friend of Dayton gunman

Authorities said Tuesday that a friend, Ethan Kollie, bought armor and a 100-round magazine for Betts, authorities said. But there was no evidence he knew what Betts planned, they said.

Kollie will appear Wednesday in federal court. His attorney said he has been cooperating with investigators. "He was as shocked and surprised as everyone else that Mr. Betts committed the massacre," attorney Nick Gounaris said Monday.

Prosecutors accused Kollie of lying about not using marijuana on federal firearms forms in the purchase of a pistol that wasn't used in the shooting. Police have said there was nothing in Betts' background to prevent him from buying the gun.

The weapon was purchased online from a dealer in Texas and shipped to another firearms dealer in the Dayton area, police said.

Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine last week proposed a package of gun-control measures, including requiring background checks for nearly all gun sales in Ohio and allowing courts to restrict firearms access for people perceived as threats.

Two state lawmakers Monday reintroduced legislation that would restrict access to guns. One bill would establish universal background checks. The second would raise the minimum age for all gun purchases to 21.

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Police split on whether Dayton, Ohio, gunman targeted sister

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Investigators are split on whether the Dayton shooter intentionally killed his sister, who was one of the first nine he killed, the city's police chief said Tuesday. Text messages show that the gunman knew where his sister, Megan Betts, was when he began shooting, but what's not known is whether he could see her standing under an umbrella at a taco stand, Chief Richard Biehl said at a news conference.

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Amid funerals and community memorial services, the city of El Paso, Texas is mourning the loss of 22 people from the mass shooting at the Cielo Vista Wal-Mart, the deadliest attack on Hispanics in modern U.S. history - and a crime that struck two countries.

Across the border, Mexico is grieving eight Mexican nationals who were gunned down in the shooting. The Mexican government has signaled that it intends to take action on their behalf, to help ensure justice for its citizens. In a statement, Mexico's foreign ministry called the mass shooting a "terrorist act against innocent Mexicans."

Mexico expects to participate in the investigation of the suspect, who has confessed to targeting Mexicans. In a press conference on August 4, Mexico's foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said that Mexico was considering legal action against the seller and manufacturer of the weapon used in the attack, as well as possible extradition of the suspect to Mexico.

However, some foreign affairs experts say that Mexico's legal avenues may be constrained by political and practical realities.

Scott R. Anderson, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that Mexico will likely be involved, in some way, in the investigation of the mass shooting.

"The U.S. and Mexico have a mutual legal assistance treaty, which basically means that there are mechanisms for sharing information and evidence," Anderson said. "For the sake of good relations, the U.S. government will probably find ways to keep Mexico apprised of the investigation."

Beyond the exchange of information, Anderson does not foresee Mexico being able to sue the seller or manufacturer of the weapon used in the mass shooting.

"It would be more plausible if Mexican nationals who were injured, or the estates of the deceased, brought a lawsuit. In the case of Mexico itself as a plaintiff, the legal standing you need is harder to justify," said Anderson. These types of lawsuits have not had much success when brought by American plaintiffs, Anderson noted, so there is little reason to expect that the results would be different if Mexico pursued such action.

The possibility of Mexico extraditing the shooting suspect appears even more unlikely.

"There is a legal framework that Mexico could use if they wanted to extradite him (the suspect) but the chances that the U.S. would honor the request are zero to none," said Emily Edmonds-Poli, associate professor of political science and international relations at the University of San Diego. "The U.S. has strong interests for political and legal reasons for justice to be meted out here."

The U.S. has extradited Mexican criminal suspects, the most prominent being Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera in 2017. He faced charges, including allegations of money-laundering and drug trafficking, that were transnational - meaning that they spanned the U.S and Mexico.

In contrast, the El Paso shooting occurred on U.S. territory, and the suspect and a majority of the victims are Americans. So Mexico would seem to have little leverage in demanding to try the El Paso suspect.

Edmonds-Poli believes that any extradition attempts would be futile. "The U.S./Mexico extradition treaty could technically be the basis for this kind of request, so legally it is one hundred percent possible. Politically and practically, extradition is not going to happen; Mexico would not be bargaining from a position of strength relative to the Trump administration."

To some observers, it has been notable that Mexico's foreign minister Ebrard has spoken forcefully about Mexico's interest in the El Paso mass shooting, rather than Mexican President Lopez Obrador. Ebrard said that Mexico is considering extradition, rather than demanding it. This strategy could be seen as an attempt not to rile the Trump administration during a time of strained relations between the two countries over migration and tariffs.

"I think Mexican authorities are trying to tow a fine line, between generating political support at home while trying not to antagonize Trump while trying to help those who are affected by this tragedy," said Gustavo A. Flores-Macias, associate professor of government at Cornell University.

Ebrard speaking about potential lawsuits or extradition is symbolically valuable to the Mexican government, especially since Lopez Obrador has been criticized at home for seeming too accommodating to Trump. "It looks good domestically, that the government is standing up for Mexicans abroad."

According to Flores-Macias, the Mexican government could take other steps, such as filing to become an "interested party" in any case against the El Paso shooter or becoming another voice in the larger movement to bring about gun legislation in the U.S.

Scott R. Anderson of the Brookings Institution takes a pragmatic view of Mexico's situation in the wake of the El Paso shooting.

"The Mexican government knows that the world's attention is on this issue. Mexico wants to seize this moment and put pressure on the U.S.; the ability to threaten legal action satisfies both the domestic audience and puts pressure on the U.S. to fully address this tragedy."

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What are Mexico's legal prospects regarding the El Paso shooting?

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Amid funerals and community memorial services, the city of El Paso, Texas is mourning the loss of 22 people from the mass shooting at the Cielo Vista Wal-Mart, the deadliest attack on Hispanics in modern U.S. history - and a crime that struck two countries.

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J Reardon arrested for attempting to shoot up a synagogue.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/white-nationalist-arrested-alleged-threat-against-ohio-jewish-community-center-n1043726

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The El Paso shooter told a detective after his arrest on Saturday that he was targeting Mexicans when he opened fire at a Walmart.

The shooter, who surrendered to police, revealed this during an interrogation at El Paso police headquarters, after waiving his Miranda rights, according to a court affidavit obtained by the New York Times.

The news affirms suspicions that shooter drove more than 10 hours to the store, located near the Mexican border, specifically to find and kill Latinx people. Officials believe he was the person who wrote a racist, xenophobic manifesto posted online minutes before the massacre, in which he warned about a "Hispanic invasion" of Texas.

On Monday, a relative of one of the victims told the El Paso Times that the shooter was mainly looking for Hispanic shoppers to gun down. Chris Grant, 50, was shopping for groceries at Walmart, his family said, when he saw the gunman target Latinx shoppers while letting white and black shoppers leave the store.

"He stated that the shooter was targeting Mexicans and was passing whites, African Americans," Grant's ex-wife Laura Hromatka told the newspaper.

Grant told CNN that the memory of people kneeling and praying for mercy in Spanish before they were executed still haunts him.

"They were on the ground, and he still just shot them in the head," Grant told CNN's Chris Cuomo. "They were praying, 'Please! Please! Don't shoot me.' And he had no remorse for their lives at all."

Grant, who is black, said he started throwing soda bottles to distract the shooter when he was shot.

While Grant survived the massacre, 22 other Walmart shoppers did not. Officials have not identified all the dead yet, but the New York Times published a list of some of the victims and their backgrounds. Thirteen were US citizens, eight were Mexican citizens and one was German.

The released affidavit comes as federal investigators are still considering filing hate crime charges against the shooter. Officials believe he posted a racist, xenophobic manifesto online, in which he warned about a "Hispanic invasion" of Texas. They are also investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism. Meanwhile, the deaths of Mexican citizens have led Mexican officials to demand protections for citizens and Mexican Americans in the US.

El Paso is 83 percent Hispanic, and the Walmart that the shooter targeted is in a heavily Mexican American neighborhood. The store is also known for its large Mexican client base. It's the closest US Walmart to downtown Juarez, Mexico, and Mexicans cross the border on weekends to get good deals on clothing and electronics. On the day of the shooting, many parents were at the store, with their kids, for back-to-school shopping.

President Donald Trump responded to the El Paso shooting, along with an unrelated shooting in Dayton, Ohio, in a brief speech on Monday. He mostly pointed to cultural issues and mental illness, although he did throw in support for a red flag law that could let police or courts seize guns from dangerous people. He said nothing about widespread criticism of his own anti-immigrant rhetoric, which some say inspired the El Paso attacks.

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The El Paso shooter told police that he was targeting Mexicans

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The El Paso shooter told a detective after his arrest on Saturday that he was targeting Mexicans when he opened fire at a Walmart. The shooter, who surrendered to police, revealed this during an interrogation at El Paso police headquarters, after waiving his Miranda rights, according to a court affidavit obtained by the New York Times.

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"Near the end of his remarks, the president misspoke, saying, "May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo," instead of Dayton, where Sunday's shooting occurred. It's unclear whether the teleprompter was incorrect, or whether the president misspoke on his own."

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President Trump called out "white supremacy" by name Monday and urged the nation to condemn it with one voice in the wake of the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, and the racist manifesto authorities believe the suspect posted shortly beforehand.

"In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America," the president said in a speech Monday in the White House Diplomatic room.

Mr. Trump called for "bipartisan solutions" after the weekend's mass shootings in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio. Although the president didn't specifically call for new restrictions on guns, he did reiterate his support for "red flag" laws to keep guns out of the hands of people who appear to pose an imminent threat. But he did not call for stricter background checks, as he had suggested in a tweet earlier in the day.

The president also directed the Justice Department to propose legislation, so that those who commit hate crimes and mass murders face the death penalty "quickly" and "decisively," "without years of delay. He also urged social media companies to catch threats before they're actualized.

"We ask God in heaven to ease the anguish of those who suffer and we vow to act with urgent resolve," the president said.

The president also called for an end to - or substantial reduction of - the "glorification" of violence in "gruesome and grisly" video game culture.

Mr. Trump, who on Twitter Monday morning suggested linking legislation on stricter background checks and immigration reform legislation, said in his remarks hours later that it is hatred and mental illness that pull the trigger, not guns. The president said he is "open and ready to listen" for ways to prevent mass shootings.

Near the end of his remarks, the president misspoke, saying, "May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo," instead of Dayton, where Sunday's shooting occurred. It's unclear whether the teleprompter was incorrect, or whether the president misspoke on his own.

"America will rise to the challenge. We will always have and we always will, win," the president said to conclude his speech. "The choice is ours, and ours alone. it is not up to mentally ill monsters, it is up to us. If we are able to pass great legislation after all of these years, we will ensure that those who were attacked will not have died in vain."

Trump says he supports "red flag laws" as means of gun control

But the path forward for any significant change is unclear. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to call the Senate back from August recess to address gun violence. But Republicans have long been hesitant to pass any additional laws restricting gun ownership.

Critics had wondered whether Mr. Trump would call out white supremacy by name to address the El Paso suspect's manifesto. The president will still face questions from reporters this week about his own past rhetoric that critics say has fueled racial hatred in American culture.

Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke drew a direct connection between the president's rhetoric on immigration and the possible motives of the white man suspected of killing 20 people in the border city Saturday.

"I mean, connect the dots about what he's been doing in this country," said of President Trump in an interview with CNN Monday. "He's not tolerating racism - he's promoting racism. He's not tolerating violence - he's inciting racism and violence in this country."

Beto O'Rourke says Trump's rhetoric "has a lot to do" with El Paso shooting

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Trump urges nation to condemn "white supremacy" and find "bipartisan solutions"

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President Trump called out "white supremacy" by name Monday and urged the nation to condemn it with one voice in the wake of the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, and the racist manifesto authorities believe the suspect posted shortly beforehand. "In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy.

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Exactly two weeks ago, Antonio Basco lost his wife, and only family member, in the El Paso massacre.

Interested in El Paso Shooting?

Add El Paso Shooting as an interest to stay up to date on the latest El Paso Shooting news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

On Saturday morning, he said his final goodbye to his beloved Margie Reckard -- but with hundreds of fellow community members standing behind him.

More than 3,000 people paid their respects Friday night at a visitation for Reckard in El Paso, according to the Perches Funeral Homes. Hundreds were expected to attend her funeral Saturday morning.

"It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Basco said outside the cemetery early Saturday, speaking about all who have supported him.

"I love El Paso and [I'm] glad to be your family. Thank you very much," he said. "I got the world's largest family."

Basco welcomed strangers to attend the services because he didn't have any family nearby.

The response to his invitation was so overwhelming that the funeral staff relocated the service to a bigger venue.

"We didn't know Margie, but we felt that we should be here to pay our respects to Mr. Basco. I don't know how it feels to not have anybody," Dolores Luna, a resident of El Paso, said at Reckard's visitation Friday night. "We are his family here in El Paso. That's why we're all her to support him."

Reckard was an employee of the Walmart, where she and 21 others were killed and more than two dozen were injured when a gunman opened fire on Aug. 3.

Basco arrived at the prayer service Friday to a standing ovation from the hundreds in attendance who had lined up outside for hours and hugs from dozens of attendees.

"Thank you for allowing us to go through this process, for inviting us in. We thank you, Tony, for inviting us. We would have never known that you needed us to be friends, but look at all these friends you have," Harrison Johnson, director of the Perches Funeral Homes, said during the service.

Jordan Ballard, who is from Los Angeles, flew to El Paso specifically to attend the memorial and funeral, despite being a total stranger.

"His story moved me," Ballard told El Paso ABC affiliate KVIA.

Daniel Ramos, an assistant special agent at the FBI El Paso Division, said he felt it was his duty to be there for Basco.

"I had to come. Most of my co-workers felt the same way: to show that we're all a family," Ramos said while waiting in line.

The service was originally scheduled to be held in a chapel that seats 250 people, but Perches had "more than 250 calls" from well-wishers all over the country so they were moved to La Paz Faith Memorial and Spiritual Center, a facility owned by Perches.

"The outpouring and amazing response from all over, not just our city, but the country is gonna be more than the capacity of the venue that we have," Johnson told ABC News early Friday.

"I'm sure it's gonna be thousands," he added.

La Paz seats 500 people.

"I've been doing this for over 30 years and I've never seen this ... for, I guess so to speak, a non-high profile person," Johnson said. "I've never experienced such an outpouring of love and support and caring for what you would say is pretty much just an ordinary citizen, you know a loving person."

Since Perches posted on Facebook that Basco "welcomes anyone to attend his wife's service" because he had no nearby family, people from as far away as California have expressed interest in attending Reckard's funeral, Johnson said.

He said Basco has been "overwhelmed" by the response. After speaking with Basco Friday morning, Johnson said he seemed to be "doing well."

Basco could not immediately be reached.

Reckard's two sons and her daughter arrived in El Paso Thursday to attend their mother's funeral, Johnson added.

The FBI El Paso Division and its Victim Service Specialists will be in attendance at Reckard's service Friday.

"As part of this community, we won't let anyone so severely hurt by this tragedy go through this alone," the department tweeted Thursday. "Mr. Basco, we stand with you."

Our Victim Service Specalists and the FBI El Paso Division would be honored to attend Margie Reckard's services this Friday night. As part of this community, we won't let anyone so severely hurt by this tragedy go through this alone. Mr. Basco, we stand with you. #EPStrong pic.twitter.com/T70QtJB5ie
- FBI El Paso (@FBIElPaso) August 16, 2019

ABC News' Kaylee Hartung contributed to this report.

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Thousands of strangers attend funeral for El Paso shooting victim

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Exactly two weeks ago, Antonio Basco lost his wife, and only family member, in the El Paso massacre. Add El Paso Shooting as an interest to stay up to date on the latest El Paso Shooting news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

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Like a director yelling "action," the horrific mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, last weekend cued all the same political actors to repeat all the same political lines. Conservatives offered their prayers and talked about mental health and video games; progressives decried inaction in Washington. Voters could be forgiven for assuming they have seen this play before and nothing will ever change. But this is wrong.

America's relationship with guns is changing, and people, more than ever, want someone to " do something." These new attitudes will transcend the red/blue divide and provide a litmus test of our political leaders' values. Republicans increasingly understand that they are on the wrong side of history and risk political ruin in the suburbs if they do not find a way to distance themselves from perceived complacency.

It hasn't always been this way. After losing the 2000 presidential election, Democrats took stock. They looked at states like West Virginia, Ohio and Missouri and grew concerned about a growing cultural disconnect between the party and the people in the interior of the country. Democrats made a tactical decision to walk away from "gun control." In 2004, the assault weapons ban was allowed to expire without protest from congressional Democrats. The party recruited pro-gun candidates to run in rural districts in the 2006 midterms. Barack Obama did not make gun control a major theme in either of his national campaigns. After Sandy Hook, Obama introduced executive orders addressing guns and championed Manchin-Toomey, a bipartisan bill that would have expanded background checks, but it was defeated by Senate Republicans and a handful of Senate Democrats representing red states.

Today, the Democratic presidential candidates have made reducing gun violence a major campaign issue. They all embrace some kind of ban on assault weapons, and some proposals are bold, such as Cory Booker's plan for federal licensing and Joe Biden's national buy-back program. Rep. Eric Swalwell made guns his central and defining issue before he dropped out last month. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), a former National Rifle Association member, felt compelled, after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, to donate $20,000 he had received in NRA political contributions to gun violence prevention groups. The new Democratic House passed a bill in February requiring a background check on every firearm sale that would represent the most significant gun legislation since 1994, if passed by the Senate. In the face of inaction in Washington and a hostile Supreme Court, a revitalized gun-control movement (including groups like Giffords, Moms Demand Action and Everytown) and political leaders have pushed for legislation at the state level and have passed ballot initiatives with gun restrictions in states across the nation.

Democrats and advocates are not simply appealing to a progressive base but are reflecting a profound change in America's relationship with guns.
[The NRA and its allies use jargon to bully gun-control supporters]
While there is some dispute about the numbers, both the General Social Survey and the Pew Research Center report a decline in gun ownership in this country. As important, these guns are concentrated in fewer hands. While Americans own more than 260 million civilian guns, according to a 2015 Harvard and Northeastern University study, 3 percent of the population owns half of those guns. This reflects the decline of hunting as a sport and cultural pastime, as the country comes less rural and the population more diverse. Now a narrower group of people owns guns, and they are more likely to say they have them for self-protection (60 percent cite personal safety vs. 36 percent who hunt, according to a 2013 Gallup poll).

At the same time, voters' views on this issue are changing. Even before the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Gallup recorded the highest level of support for stricter gun laws in 25 years. The share of voters very dissatisfied with the nation's gun laws has nearly doubled from 2008 (21 percent) to 2019 (40 percent). While the NRA tears itself apart over accusations of mismanagement and questions about its strategy, national polling shows that the organization gets net-negative ratings for the first time in two decades. In a recent GQR survey of 2,000 likely 2020 voters, more than 1 in 4 say their views on guns have changed within the past five years. This number includes 1 in 3 Democrats, but also 1 in 4 independents and 1 in 5 Republicans. Among these voters, 78 percent - and 70 percent of Republicans - have moved toward supporting stronger gun laws.

The primary reasons for this change: Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Tucson, Orlando, Las Vegas, Aurora, Columbine, Parkland, Sutherland Springs, Charleston, and now El Paso and Dayton. In our survey, we asked those whose views on guns are evolving to describe what specifically changed their minds. Among voters moving toward stronger gun laws, 55 percent volunteered either mass shootings or school shootings, and 16 percent talked about easy access to guns.
[Five myths about gun violence]
American voters now broadly support efforts to reduce gun violence. A May Quinnipiac poll found that 94 percent of voters favored universal background checks. A strong majority also favor an assault weapon ban: In the GQR survey, a 65 percent majority backed a ban on assault weapons, including 52 percent of Republicans and a 55 percent in gun-owning households. Earlier in the decade, surveys tracked support in the low to mid 50s, but now most survey show support above 60 percent. Importantly, a 65 percent majority also believed that mass shootings are often caused by easy access to assault weapons. An even more impressive 72 percent supported a buyback program for assault weapons, like the one instituted in Australia after a 1996 mass shooting there.

Gun control has real political traction. Gallup shows that the share of voters who count the issue as a major factor in their electoral decision-making is increasing. In the GQR survey, 19 percent listed "reducing gun violence" as one of the most important issues facing the country, below health care (33 percent) and immigration (28 percent), but essentially tied with the economy and jobs (21 percent) and keeping taxes and spending down (20 percent). Among African Americans, this is the second most important issue, behind only reducing the cost of health care. It's even more intense among younger people, whose turnout increased dramatically in the 2018 mid-term elections. A Harvard Institute of Politics study showed that concerns about school shootings, health care and gun violence were the first, second and third issues most correlated with the likelihood of voting. (Conversely, a 2014 Quinnipiac survey showed just 3 percent identifying gun policy as one of their most important issues.)

Despite these changes, there is still a real and visceral attachment to gun ownership. Not surprisingly, since more people own guns for "protection," nearly 60 percent in the GQR survey said having a gun makes you safer. Gallup research suggests this is a reversal from the past, when a majority of people thought having a gun in the house made it a more dangerous place. People also have doubts about the effectiveness of restrictions on guns. In the GQR survey, for example, 83 percent believed that criminals will get guns regardless of what the law says.

Still, people seem comfortable with these tensions, as 84 percent also said that while no law can prevent all mass shootings, "we can make them less frequent." As we have heard in focus groups, including among gun owners, people just want to "do something," even if it doesn't completely solve the problem. They do not want mass shootings to be America's "new normal." The fact that people support stronger gun laws - even if some criminals continue to obtain guns and no law can stop all mass shootings - is a critical advance for this movement.
[How the NRA conquered Washington and abandoned gun owners like me]
Advocates of reducing gun violence still face political obstacles. When Democrats retreated from the issue after the 2000 election, the gun lobby did not regard that as a truce. It exploited a largely uncontested field to advance its positions, and guns became deeply tied to the views of the GOP base. Rural red states have huge power in the Senate to prevent meaningful change (Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's tweet calling for "bipartisan, bicameral" efforts rings hollow), and President Trump, in his remarks to the nation after El Paso and Dayton, did not support any new restrictions on access to guns.

Still, the cracks are showing. After the Parkland shooting last year, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) signed legislation that raised the age for gun purchases and instituted a three-day waiting period (which the NRA immediately challenged in court). This past week, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio proposed a 17-point plan to reduce gun violence, including universal background checks, protective orders to take firearms away from potentially dangerous individuals and increased penalties on a range of illegal gun activities. Rep. Mike Turner, a Republican who represents Dayton in Congress and has a 93 percent rating from the NRA, called Tuesday for an assault weapons ban. "The carnage these military style weapons are able to produce when available to the wrong people is intolerable," he said in a statement. " ... This tragedy must become a catalyst for a broader national conversation about what we can do to stop these mass shootings."

For the people used to offering them, thoughts and prayers are no longer enough.
[Why Americans can't agree on gun control]

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Perspective | America is turning against guns

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Like a director yelling "action," the horrific mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, last weekend cued all the same political actors to repeat all the same political lines. Conservatives offered their prayers and talked about mental health and video games; progressives decried inaction in Washington.

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http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/everything-we-know-about-the-el-paso-walmart-shooting.html

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000 third-party items from its website after mass shootings - cnn

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Walmart removes 1,000 third-party items from its website after mass shootings

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Walmart has removed about 1,000 third-party items from its website in the wake of two mass shootings after determining the products violate company policy, a company spokesperson told CNN Tuesday.

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"The suspect was arrested and transported to the El Paso Police Department's headquarters, where police say he waived his Miranda rights and agreed 'to speak about the incident.'"

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The gunman accused of the shooting massacre that left 22 people dead at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart on Saturday was in his car - nearly a mile away from the horrific scene - when he surrendered to Texas Rangers, according to an arrest affidavit.

"Agents and police officers at the intersection then observed a male person - the defendant - exit out of the vehicle with his hands raised in the air and stated out loud to the agents, 'I'm the shooter,' " the document states.

It appears the alleged shooter somehow evaded El Paso Police Department officers who arrived at the store about six minutes after receiving calls about a disturbance at the popular shopping center, which then became calls about a shooting in progress.

Sgt. Enrique Carrillo told NPR 21-year-old Patrick Wood Crusius was in the left hand lane of an intersection when rangers pulled up behind him. "He had driven up to that intersection, but when the officer saw him he had already exited the car," Carrillo said.

The suspect was arrested and transported to the El Paso Police Department's headquarters, where police say he waived his Miranda rights and agreed "to speak about the incident."

During questioning, police say, the alleged shooter confessed that he planned the rampage and drove nearly 10 hours from Allen, Texas, to the border city with the intention of targeting "Mexicans."

Authorities believe Crusius is the author of a 2,300-word anti-immigrant screed that was posted to the online message board 8chan just 19 minutes before the mass shooting. The four-page document talked about a "Hispanic invasion of Texas."

"The defendant stated once inside the store he opened fire using his AK-47 shooting multiple innocent victims," the affidavit says, adding that he was carrying "multiple magazines."

The 22 victims ranged in age from 15 to 90. Thirteen are listed as U.S. citizens; eight are Mexican nationals. One is German.

Crusius has been in police custody since his arrest but has not been arraigned. Claudia Duran, a spokeswoman for the El Paso County district attorney, said that won't happen until the investigation by El Paso police and the FBI concludes.

State prosecutors in El Paso announced on Sunday that they will pursue the death penalty.

Mark Stevens, the accused gunman's lawyer, declined to comment for this story.

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'I'm The Shooter,' El Paso Suspect Allegedly Told Police

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The gunman accused of the shooting massacre that left 22 people dead at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart on Saturday was in his car - nearly a mile away from the horrific scene - when he surrendered to Texas Rangers, according to an arrest affidavit.

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000 third-party items from its website after mass shootings - cnn

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Walmart removes 1,000 third-party items from its website after mass shootings

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Walmart has removed about 1,000 third-party items from its website in the wake of two mass shootings after determining the products violate company policy, a company spokesperson told CNN Tuesday.

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A longtime friend of the Ohio gunman bought the body armor, a 100-round magazine and a gun accessory used to kill nine people, but there's no indication that the man knew that his friend was planning a mass shooting, federal agents said Monday. Ethan Kollie told investigators just hours after the shooting that he bought the equipment and kept it at his apartment so the 24-year-old shooter's parents would not find it, according to a court document.

Federal investigators emphasized that there was no evidence that Kollie, who is also 24, knew how Connor Betts would use the equipment or that Kollie intentionally took part in the planning. The accusations came as prosecutors unsealed charges against Kollie that they said were unrelated to the Aug. 4 shooting in Dayton, Ohio.

Betts opened fire in a popular entertainment district, killing his sister and eight others. Officers killed Betts within 30 seconds, just outside a crowded bar, and authorities have said hundreds more people may have died if Betts had gotten inside.

Prosecutors accused Kollie of lying about not using marijuana on federal firearms forms in the purchase of a pistol that was not used in the shooting. Possessing a firearm as an unlawful user of a controlled substance is a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Making a false statement regarding firearms carries a potential maximum sentence of up to five years' imprisonment. A message seeking comment was left at a phone number for Kollie and with his attorney.

Police have said there was nothing in Betts' background that would have prevented him from buying the AR-15-style gun used in the shooting. The weapon was bought online from a dealer in Texas and shipped to another firearms dealer in the Dayton area, police said on the day of the shooting.

Betts and Kollie apparently had been friends for several years. Kollie told agents that they had smoked marijuana and used acid several times a week beginning in 2014 through 2015, said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman.

"When the agents asked Kollie how often he used drugs, Kollie indicated that he smoked marijuana every day and had been doing so for about 10 years," Glassman told reporters. When agents were executing a search warrant, Kollie told them he grew psychedelic mushrooms in his apartment, Glassman said.

Betts was with Kollie in 2016 when Betts was charged with driving under the influence, according to a police report from Bellbrook where the gunman lived with his parents. Investigators have not released a motive for the shooting.

Eight of the victims who died were shot multiple times, according to the Montgomery County coroner's office. More than 30 others were left injured, including at least 14 with gunshot wounds, hospital officials and investigators said.

Just days after the shooting, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced a package of gun control measures, including requiring background checks for nearly all gun sales in Ohio and allowing courts to restrict firearms access for people perceived as threats. Two state lawmakers on Monday reintroduced legislation that would restrict access to guns.

One bill would require background checks while the second raises the minimum age for all gun purchases to 21.

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Dayton shooter's friend allegedly bought gunman body armor, 100-round magazine

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A longtime friend of the Ohio gunman bought the body armor, a 100-round magazine and a gun accessory used to kill nine people, but there's no indication that the man knew that his friend was planning a mass shooting, federal agents said Monday.

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Everything We Know About the Dayton Mass Shooting

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Nine people were killed and 27 were injured after a gunman opened fire outside a bar early Sunday morning in Dayton, Ohio's Oregon District. The shooter was killed by police officers responding to the attack.

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Staring down a seemingly endless aisle of products, including an entire grocery store-within-a-store, it seems like the shopping never ends at Walmart's Santa Clarita Supercenter, 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Inside, through an entryway wedged between freezer cases full of seafood, past employee locker rooms, behind a door with a frosted glass logo - a Walmart icon superimposed on a graduate's cap and tassel -one version of computerized commerce never stops.

This space attached to the retail floor is one of Walmart's roughly 200 training academies, part of a two-year-old initiative to improve and expand training of the company's roughly 1.2 million employee associates, the front-line workforce that meets, greets, and checks out customers. Contrary to many people's perception of the low-cost leader, this training effort is very high-tech. Last year, the academies began offering lessons in virtual reality.

Designed by a Silicon Valley startup, these lessons showcase the value Walmart places in employee education, and the shifting fortunes of virtual reality. The largest corporate investment in the nascent VR industry, which will see 17,000 Oculus Go headsets sent to the company's 4,700 US stores, offers a vision of the technological changes altering the retail landscape. It's also an uncanny valley of grocery shopping.

After slipping on an Oculus headset and tightening the velcro straps around my temple, I'm greeted by a boot screen, basically a white expanse in every direction, punctuated by black dots to form a grid. There's a vibe of Neo and Morpheus in The Matrix, but instead of trading martial arts moves or leaping off buildings, I'm transported to the center of a busy intersection inside a Walmart store during Black Friday.

It's a bit claustrophobic, with customers streaming past me in every direction. Spinning my head, I see a family pushing a cart filled with emoji slippers, then a man rushing past with a haul of electronics, and finally, a team of associates giving directions to lost shoppers.

As I circle around, the facilitator guiding me through the simulation can pause the action, allowing us to discuss, digest, and learn from what I'm seeing. I'm told the passing customers, who all seem to be casting glances at me, are doing so on purpose; the simulation is meant to put employees on the spot, letting them adjust to the pressure, noise, and expectations of Black Friday shoppers to gain situational awareness before the big day.

Retail's survival of the fittest will be fought in stores, not just online

As the retail world continues to be rocked by changing consumer habits, Walmart's massive bet on virtual reality may seem like a peculiar part of the company's technology portfolio. After all, Walmart bought retail site Jet.com for $3.3 billion in a bid to bolster its e-commerce offerings and counter Amazon's rise.

But the company's VR play, and plans to bring virtual reality training to every associate, shows the world's largest company is still investing in human resources and the in-store experience. Sometimes derided as a futuristic folly, or feared as another tech tool that will divorce us from reality, VR training, as Walmart executives and retail analysts see it, symbolizes the importance of the human element.

"The biggest advantage for us at Walmart is our associates," says Brock McKeel, the company's senior director of digital operations, and one of the executives who helped spearhead the VR push. "Anything we can do to make our associates better, and help them take care of their customers, is an advantage for us."

"Almost everybody has good e-commerce. The store environment is where you can create differentiation."

Brick-and-mortar retail isn't going extinct. Amazon's $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods last year was a move to gain a physical footprint in high-income neighborhoods across the country. But it will be survival of the fittest, determined in large part by technology.

"If you think about the overall marketplace today, pure-play e-commerce isn't as competitive today as it was in the past," says Robert Hetu, vice president and retail analyst at Gartner, a consumer research firm. "Almost everybody has good e-commerce. The store environment is where you can create differentiation. Walmart sees VR as a way to efficiently provide an elevated shopping experience."

Walmart's own research has found that VR learning improves employee retention of new information by 10 to 15 percent compared to the typical combination of videos, online demos, and classroom work. Scale that across thousands of stores, and those headsets suddenly seem like a shrewd investment. And as far as the VR industry sees it, Walmart's huge purchase is a bellwether of how the technology will alter the corporate educational market. After capturing the low-hanging fruit of gaming, the technology is becoming more of an enterprise solution.

"When you consider their scale, it's immeasurable," says Andy Mathis, head of partnerships at Oculus for Business. "It's that classic moment where a new technology has truly been discovered in a meaningful way. It's a significant statement on not only the possibilities of VR in the future, but the possibilities right now. It's ready today for impactful training for corporations, health care, and education."

How a virtual Black Friday started on college football Saturday

Walmart's path to virtual Black Friday simulations began in a locker room. At the company's Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters, home state pride for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks football team, which competes in the storied SEC and has a stadium in nearby Fayetteville, runs deep.

Like many college football teams, the Razorbacks have been investing in training facilities to give their players and team an edge. In 2015, the team became one of the first to buy into a new virtual reality training program for quarterbacks developed by a Silicon Valley startup named STRIVR (Sports Training in Virtual Reality). Derek Belch, formerly a coaching assistant at Stanford, came up with the technology. It uses 360-degree video to create simulated game scenarios, letting players hone their ability to make snap decisions in with less risk of injury.

Repetition without risk is the core value of VR training, according to Logan Mulvey, the company's chief customer officer. STRIVR boils it down to the acronym RIDE: VR lets you train for rare, impossible, dangerous, or expensive scenarios, over and over again.

"Training a quarterback is the same as training a BMW employee on the factory floor. They both need to quickly assess their options and make a decision."

"Training a quarterback is the same as training a BMW employee on the factory floor," Mulvey says. "They both need to quickly assess their options and make a decision."

Walmart's McKeel, who was then building out the Training Academy program, had been looking at virtual reality as a potential training tool, but none of the the programs he'd come across struck him as particularly useful to Walmart. After hearing about STRIVR, he decided to investigate, and tested out the technology after a Razorbacks game in the fall of 2016.

"Seeing a scenario where quarterbacks can do repetitions in a safe environment to better prepare them for the game made a light bulb go off," he says. "They were getting memorable experiences that prepared them for when things actually happened on the field. I thought this would be a great format for the Academies."

The modules STRIVR designed for Walmart focus on in-store customer service. The produce simulation, for example, the first lesson ever built, presented managerial trainees with a disorganized "wet wall," the row of fresh vegetables topped with misters and plastic bag dispensers.

During training in the academies, a two-week program for managers, one trainee goes through the simulation, tasked with identifying all 14 errors in 45 seconds. A facilitator asks questions and occasionally pauses the simulation, inviting the other trainees, who are watching the experience on a large screen in the classroom, to comment.

A Socratic method of sorts for shopping, this group learning experience allows for more interactive feedback and discussion. It also allows the company to standardize training across its expansive network of stores, and train large groups on picking up spills, or re-organizing the produce section, without having to shut down busy, revenue-generation parts of the store ( 20 to 30 percent of company sales comes from growing fresh food offerings). Mulvey said STRIVR has even created an active shooter drill for the company, giving employees guidance on how to handle such an unforeseen emergency.

McKeel says the VR training, done in four- or five-minute segments, cuts down training time, increases engagement, and improves employees test scores. It's one thing to tell a new manager that Black Friday is insanely busy. It's another thing to drop them in the middle of a packed store floor, or behind the counter at the electronics section as customers rush for discounted flat screens.

"We underestimated the classroom impact of VR," says McKeel. "You don't get this kind of engagement in normal, classroom-style learning."

The program also allows employees to learn about, and even master, new services or technologies before they arrive at the store. Walmart has been rolling out the "16-foot-tall vending machines" they call pickup towers across the country, aiming to have them in 700 stores by the end of the year. With virtual reality, they can practice using the towers before they even arrive.

The coming age of retail augmentation

Walmart's VR push represents how the traditional calculus around retail employees has changed, according to Gartner's Hetu. It signals an age of retail augmentation, not retail obsolescence, as many have predicted. As more companies embrace unified commerce -tying together online and offline shopping to gain additional consumer insight and deliver a better experience - in-person customer service becomes more important.

"Five or six years ago, companies like Best Buy were seeing that customers came into stores with more knowledge than the associates," Hetu says. "Now, they've turned things around, in part using technology to give employees more information. They're investing in things that provide associates with more data and intelligence."

Over the long run, Hetu predicts some retail staff will be eliminated, but mostly positions, like cashiers, that are easily mechanized and not focused on customer service. Corporations will focus on the critical human element in shopping, and invest heavily in tracking technology and robotics to help employees help customers - new technology, coincidentally, that can be learned in virtual reality simulations.

Dreama Lovett, 53, works in online grocery for a Walmart in Jacksonville, Florida, a service line targeted by the company's virtual reality training initiative. While Lovett has yet to try out the Oculus headset, she says technology, such as the new pickup tower her store will receive in January, is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the job.

"What I do for a living with Walmart is going to be the new way of life," she says. "All stores are going to be focused on online pickup and delivery. It's the new way, part of the evolution and transition of the company."

Walmart itself is investing in other technology to make associates more efficient, including a robot assistant from Bossa Nova Robotics that scans stores looking for out-of-stock items and shortages and alerts associates, as well as a mobile scheduling app to make staffing more efficient.

All this technology is an investment in improving service, and eliminating bumps in performance as new employees get up to speed, or when retail brings on huge numbers of temporary employees during the seasonal rush. Now that Walmart has "kicked the tires" and shown the works, says Ramon Llamas, a tech and VR analyst for IDC, he predicts companies such as Home Depot and Lowe's will see VR training as a best practice.

While more, better, and faster retail workers would please any large corporation, in a tight labor market with low unemployment - The Wall Street Journal predicts a shortage of seasonal employees this year - new technology can also be seen as a recruiting tool.

Babs Ryan, a vice president and consulting director at Forrester Research covering consumer and retail, says retail faces a labor crisis. Beyond seasonal shortages, it's harder and harder to find and retain good talent. Technology can help keep talent engaged and excited.

"It's not about employees earning another dollar an hour," Ryan says. "It's making you want to wake up and do your job every day. The big thing is human interaction, or lack thereof. It's about better on-boarding, a better experience, and using technology to bring in the human element."

"These virtual assistants seem way out there, but think about the important aspect that ties them together. Employees don't feel alone."

Ryan views the shift toward retail augmentation less about relentless efficiency, and more about relieving employees of boring, burdensome, rote work while giving them the tools and confidence to have better interactions with customers. Ryan believes this retail tech push will eventually aim to turn more and more employees into style guides and curators.

She points to companies like Stitch Fix, the online clothing subscription service, as a model; customer data and tech provide employees with the information to make recommendations and relate to customers. Walmart, in fact, has been working on its own variation of the concept, launching a personal shopping service called Jetblack.

"These virtual assistants seem way out there, but think about the important aspect that ties them together," she says. "Employees don't feel alone. Someone has my back, and someone is there when I need them."

A new way to learn from employees

Walmart is far from alone when it comes to investing in virtual reality. Farmers Insurance has used VR for corporate training, helping adjustors learn how to evaluate accidents. STRIVR also lists Chipotle and Lowe's as clients.

Tech firms hope more corporations embrace the technology as it evolves. According to Mulvey, STRIVR customers now have more data about their employee behavior than ever before. By training staff in an immersive environment, companies can track every single movement and use this information to study efficiency, improve processes, and even alter the layout of stores and facilities.

Companies will also be more nimble; new processes and technology can be rolled out faster and faster, with employee feedback and iterative improvement available before customers see a single change on a store floor.

"This technology gives you total certainty of what employees are doing," says Mulvey. "We've given companies the ability to take a deeper look at the way that their employees behave."

While the idea of tracking movements can invoke Big Brother comparisons, it can also make work safer. IDC's Llamas foresees a future where workers train on virtual forklifts, taking the multi-million dollar pieces of machinery for a spin in VR, with no risk of injury or accidents. Costly mistakes, for both the company and workers, can be avoided.

As training modules evolve to tackle even more complex interactions and experiences, VR may become a means to improve soft skills and build confidence. STRIVR sees a future with more crisp visuals, and branching technology, a choose-your-own-adventure update which will allow virtual customers or employees in these simulations to not only interact more, but change their responses, and the module's storyline, based on how the learner interacts.

According to Oculus's Mathis, the company's forthcoming Quest headset, set to launch in the first half of 2019, is their first all-in-one VR system that will track hands and allow free movement, and improve engagement and interaction.

"You don't realize your mannerisms, that you're slouching in the chair, that you don't make eye contact, and all these little things mean a lot."

"It opens the floodgates for highly technical and advanced programs," he says.

These advances will continue to change how employees learn. It's a phenomenon that Walmart's McKeel has already observed. During some of the classroom feedback at Walmart training academies, learners are shown videos of how they're performing, in effect, judging themselves.

"You don't realize your mannerisms, that you're slouching in the chair, that you don't make eye contact, and all these little things mean a lot," he says.

In an interactive world, you can, in the language of an athlete, get the reps, and make learning more interactive. Virtual reality's growing role in education shows a truism of technology's evolution. It's can be more fantastical, all-encompassing, and ultimately, prosaic, than science fiction might imagine.
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Walmart is using virtual reality to train its workforce for Black Friday

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Staring down a seemingly endless aisle of products, including an entire grocery store-within-a-store, it seems like the shopping never ends at Walmart's Santa Clarita Supercenter, 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

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Cincinnati - The gunman in Dayton who killed nine people had cocaine, an antidepressant and alcohol in his system during the mass shooting, and was cut down by a barrage of at least two dozen police bullets that penetrated gaps in his body armor, a coroner said Thursday.

Montgomery County coroner Dr. Kent Harshbarger said authorities found a pipe device and a baggie of cocaine on 24-year-old Connor Betts. Harshbarger also reported in his preliminary autopsy findings that Betts had more than 50 entry and exit wounds.

"This incident involved an intense firefight that is rarely seen other than combat and an active-shooter incident," Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said. "The officers were confronted with a moving shooter wearing body armor, actively executing victims with an AR-15-type weapon and high-capacity magazines."

The coroner said police gunfire hit two people. One of them died, but Harshbarger said the gunman, not police, fired the lethal round.

Police investigators will review the medical records of the 17 who were wounded to determine if any of them were struck by the officers' bullets, Biehl said.

Police haven't yet determined a motive for the shooting.

Betts opened fire in a popular entertainment district in Dayton. Police shot him as he neared a crowded bar.

It's not known whether Betts targeted his 22-year-old sister, Megan, who was among the nine people he shot to death.

They had spent an hour together at an area bar before the shooting. Text messages show he knew where she was when he began shooting, but what's not known is whether he could see her standing under an umbrella at a taco stand, Chief Richard Biehl said at a news conference Tuesday.

The family will be holding private memorial services for both of their children.

Ethan Kollie, a longtime friend of Betts who told investigators he bought the body armor, a 100-round magazine and a key part of the gun Betts used in the attack, will remain in jail after a judge ordered Thursday that he be held without bond until his trial.

Authorities have said there's no indication Kollie knew Betts was planning the mass shooting, but they charged him with lying on a federal firearms form while buying a pistol not used in the shooting.

His attorneys wanted him released on house arrest with electronic monitoring and other conditions, telling the judge Kollie had no history of violence and no role in the shooting. Prosecutors opposed his request to stay with a family friend.

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Dayton gunman had drugs and alcohol in his system, coroner says

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Cincinnati - The gunman in Dayton who killed nine people had cocaine, an antidepressant and alcohol in his system during the mass shooting, and was cut down by a barrage of at least two dozen police bullets that penetrated gaps in his body armor, a coroner said Thursday.

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Dayton Shooting Lasted Just 32 Seconds and Left 9 Dead

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The shooting in the Oregon District in Dayton, Ohio lasted just 32 seconds and left nine people, plus the gunman, Connor Betts, dead.

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High school classmates of the gunman who authorities say killed nine people early Sunday in Dayton say he was suspended for compiling a "hit list" of those he wanted to kill and a "rape list" of girls he wanted to sexually assault.

The accounts by two former classmates emerged after police said there was nothing in the background of 24-year-old Connor Betts that would have prevented him from purchasing the .223-caliber rifle with extended ammunition magazines that he used to open fire outside a crowded bar. Police on patrol in the entertainment district fatally shot him less than a minute later.

Both former classmates told the Associated Press that Betts was suspended during their junior year at suburban Bellbrook High School after a hit list was found scrawled in a school bathroom. That followed an earlier suspension after Betts came to school with a list of female students he wanted to sexually assault, according to the two classmates, a man and a woman who are both now 24 and spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern they might face harassment.

"There was a kill list and a rape list, and my name was on the rape list," the female classmate said.

The woman, a former cheerleader, said she didn't really know Betts and was surprised when a police officer called her cellphone during her freshman year to tell her that her name was included on a list of potential targets.

"The officer said [Betts] wouldn't be at school for a while," she said. "But after some time passed he was back, walking the halls. They didn't give us any warning that he was returning to school."

Bellbrook-Sugarcreek schools officials declined to comment on those accounts, only confirming that Betts attended schools in the district.

The discovery of the hit list early in 2012 sparked a police investigation, and roughly one-third of Bellbrook students skipped school out of fear, according to an article in the Dayton Daily News.

It's not clear what became of that investigation. Police Chief Michael Brown of Sugarcreek Township, which has jurisdiction over the Bellbrook school, did not return calls Sunday about whether his agency investigated the hit list.

Though Betts, who was 17 at the time, was not named publicly by authorities as the author of the list, the former classmates said it was common knowledge within the school that he was the one suspended over the incident.

Drew Gainey was among those who went on social media Sunday to say red flags were raised about Betts' behavior years ago.

"There was an incident in high school with this shooter that should have prevented him from ever getting his hands on a weapon. This was a tragedy that was 100% avoidable," he wrote in a Twitter post on Sunday.

Gainey did not respond to messages from AP seeking further comment, but the name on his account matches that of a former Bellbrook student who was on the track team with Betts.

Former Bellbrook Principal Chris Baker said he "would not dispute that information" when the Daily News asked him Sunday about the hit list suspension. He declined to comment further to the newspaper and the AP was unable to reach him.

Betts had no apparent criminal record as an adult, though if he had been charged as a juvenile that would typically be sealed under state law.

"There's nothing in this individual's record that would have precluded him from getting these weapons," Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said Sunday.

Not everyone who went to school with Betts had bad things to say. Brad Howard told reporters in Bellbrook on Sunday that he was friends with Betts from preschool through their high school graduation.

"Connor Betts that I knew was a nice kid. The Connor Betts that I talked to, I always got along with well," Howard said.

Mike Kern, a customer at the gas station where Betts used to work in Bellbrook, said he hasn't seen Betts in about a year.

"He was the nicest kid you could imagine," always friendly, Kern said. "I never heard him talk about violence, say a racist word, or anything like that."

He said they sometimes played trivia at a bar near the gas station, and Betts often knew the answers on questions about current events and pop culture.

"He was real smart," Kern said. "He knew all the answers."

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Dayton shooter kept a 'hit list' and a 'rape list,' classmates say

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High school classmates of the gunman who authorities say killed nine people early Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, say he was suspended for compiling a "hit list" of those he wanted to kill and a "rape list" of girls he wanted to sexually assault.

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dayton gunman connor betts had an obsession with violence and mass shootings

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Dayton shooter had an obsession with violence and mass shootings, police say

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The gunman who opened fire in Dayton, Ohio, this weekend had an obsession with violence and mass shootings and had expressed a desire to commit a mass shooting, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said Tuesday.

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Article

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dayton gunman connor betts had an obsession with violence and mass shootings

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Dayton shooter had an obsession with violence and mass shootings, police say

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The gunman who opened fire in Dayton, Ohio, this weekend had an obsession with violence and mass shootings and had expressed a desire to commit a mass shooting, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said Tuesday.

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"In fact, they spell it out in the screeds they often post on social media before attacks. They name-drop earlier attackers, and in turn use language meant to inspire others to take up arms. Parts of the manifesto linked to the El Paso suspect read like a how-to manual."

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Domestic extremism researchers say the manifesto linked to the El Paso shooter is intended as a call to arms to other white nationalists. Such explicit calls for violence are becoming more common.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Social movements evolve over time, and the white power movement is no different. White racial extremists have shifted their language and tactics to adapt to different eras. As NPR national security correspondent Hannah Allam reports, violence is emerging as a defining characteristic of the movement.

HANNAH ALLAM, BYLINE: When Art Jipson first began studying white supremacists in the 1990s, he expected them to sound menacing or hateful. Instead, he heard this...

ART JIPSON: My movement is not about hate. My movement is about love, love of family, protection of children, protection of women.

ALLAM: Jipson was witnessing a transformation that's sometimes called boots to suits. It's when scary-looking skinheads and cross-burning Klansmen took a back seat to well-dressed politically savvy public figures - think David Duke, the former KKK grand wizard who ran for president. White supremacists still attacked with regularity throughout the '90s and early 2000s, but historically, they've been overlooked as a domestic terror threat. And after 9/11, they were eclipsed by the focus on Islamist extremists. Now, however, attacks like the massacre of Latino shoppers at a Walmart in El Paso make racial violence impossible to ignore. Jipson and other researchers say it looks like the movement is changing again.

JIPSON: The message now, in some ways, has returned back to some of those appeals towards violence.

ALLAM: The FBI calls white supremacist violence a, quote, "persistent, pervasive threat," but they're not clear on the scope of it. Law enforcement data is unreliable in part because racially motivated attacks aren't always categorized that way. Still, researchers say, the numbers they do have point to a surge. For example, hate trackers at the Anti-Defamation League found that right-wing extremists killed more people in 2018 than in any year since 1995. Most of those incidents - 78% - were connected to white supremacists.

AMY SPITALNICK: You look at Charlotte. You look at Pittsburgh. You look at Poway. You look at Christchurch. She look at Gilroy. You look at El Paso. That is a level of violence and of extremist violence that we have not seen in years.

ALLAM: That's Amy Spitalnick, executive director of Integrity First for America. It's a nonprofit behind a civil lawsuit against organizers of the Unite the Right rally that turned bloody in Charlottesville, Va., two years ago. Spitalnick says hoods are a thing of the past.

SPITALNICK: These neo-Nazis and white supremacists have absolutely no shame about what they believe and their willingness to commit this violence.

ALLAM: In fact, they spell it out in the screeds they often post on social media before attacks. They name-drop earlier attackers, and in turn use language meant to inspire others to take up arms. Parts of the manifesto linked to the El Paso suspect read like a how-to manual.

KATHLEEN BELEW: It's giving really direct tactical and - tactical instruction, target instruction, information about ballistics and gun selection. That's meant to be picked up and used by other attackers.

ALLAM: Kathleen Belew at the University of Chicago is a leading historian of the white power movement. She says it's dangerous to ignore the movement's shift toward violence. Rampages like the one in El Paso, she warned, should not be viewed as a one-off attack.

BELEW: It's not enough to simply say this is a horrible thing. We have to understand that it is meant to provoke an even more horrible thing, an even greater series of violent events.

ALLAM: In other words, she says, the El Paso attack wasn't the end goal. It was meant as a beginning. Hannah Allam, NPR News, Washington.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

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El Paso Mass Shooting Meant To Galvanize Other White Nationalists

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Domestic extremism researchers say the manifesto linked to the El Paso shooter is intended as a call to arms to other white nationalists. Such explicit calls for violence are becoming more common. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Social movements evolve over time, and the white power movement is no different.

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Gun Violence Archive (GVA) is a not for profit corporation formed in 2013 to provide free online public access to accurate information about gun-related violence in the United States. GVA will collect and check for accuracy, comprehensive information about gun-related violence in the U.S. and then post and disseminate it online.

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How Fox News pushed propaganda about the El Paso mass shooting

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I spent a lot of time watching Fox News' Saturday coverage of the El Paso shooting, and it was striking how the coverage bent toward propaganda. There were numerous interviews with survivors and witnesses that could have been done by any news outlet.

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by: kinan