The police said one suspect, a white male in his 20s from Allen, Texas, was in custody, and that the gunman had fired an AK-47-style rifle into the crowded store, sending panicked shoppers fleeing for their lives. Officials said the gunman had surrendered to the police.
Chief Greg Allen of the El Paso Police Department said they were looking at potential capital murder charges.
Several officials identified the gunman as Patrick Crusius, 21.
The gunfire Saturday began a few minutes before 11 a.m., in a popular commercial district near Cielo Vista Mall with scores of restaurants and stores that are often crowded on the weekends. The Walmart store, near Hawkins Boulevard and Gateway Boulevard West a short distance from the mall, was packed.
Enrique Duenas-Aguilar, a spokesman for the El Paso Fire Department, said emergency workers had transported 18 wounded people to hospitals. Local hospitals are treating patients from the scene. Victor Guerrero, a spokesman for Del Sol Medical Center, said the hospital was treating 11 victims. The University Medical Center of El Paso received 13 patients, according to Ryan Mielke, the hospital’s spokesman.
Manuel Uruchurtu, 20, had just paid at the Walmart register at 10:36 a.m. and was walking out of the store’s doors when he heard the sound of shots.
As Uruchurtu fled the store with a horde of people, he saw two bodies on the ground outside, one surrounded by a pool of blood.
“I saw people crying: children, old people, all in shock,” Uruchurtu said.
Law enforcement officials are studying an anti-immigrant manifesto to determine whether it was written by the gunman according to a local law enforcement official who has been briefed on the investigation. Given the manifesto’s racially extremist views, it could make the killings a federal hate crime or an act of domestic terrorism if officials determine that it is tied to the shootings.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.