On April 19, the El Paso Walmart shooter, Patrick Crusius, will spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced to 23 consecutive life sentences. He plead guilty to capital murder and nearly two dozen aggravated assault with deadly weapon charges.
“I think he just got his punishments,” freshman Diego Fierro said. “He affected a lot of people in the El Paso community and should have consequences to his actions.”
Patrick showed no remorse as he stood wearing an orange and white jumpsuit and bullet-proof vest, admitting to killing 23 people and injuring dozens more in a racially motivated shooting.
“Being able to stand there and not have any emotions is crazy,” freshman Angel Garcia said. “I could never imagine doing that after doing the unimaginable.”
The incident at Walmart happened over five and a half years ago.
“I still remember helping the customers to safety,” former Walmart employee Gilbert Serna said. “It’s weird how I still think about it to this day although it happened years ago.”
The gunman drove more than 650 miles from his home in Allen, Texas, to El Paso and opened fire on shoppers at a Walmart on August 3, 2019.
“Living close to the Walmart where it happened was scary,” Angel said. “I don’t know why he would travel so far away just to cause problems here.”
Over 150 people attended the hearing when Patrick plead guilty. Victims and their families did not speak after it.
“More than 150 people sat in there to see what he had to say,” freshman Kaylah Rubalcaba said. “The silence of the victims says a lot.”
Liliana Muñoz Puente, who was wounded in the attack, said she gave forgiveness to Patrick “because this is what Jesus, my God, taught me: To forgive the unforgivable because what would be the point of forgiving that which is easy to forgive.”
“It must have taken a lot of strength for her to forgive him,” Kaylah said. “I would have had to think about it for a long time.”
