(Photo : Reuters)

The 21-year-old former college student who targeted Hispanics in a racially motivated massacre that left 22 people dead was indicted on Thursday through a federal grand jury. The shooting incident happened during the summer at an El Paso, Texas Walmart.

Patrick Crucius, the gunman of the shooting, who lives in Allen, Texas is now facing charges in connection with the El Paso mass shooting that happened on Aug. 3 last year. According to the prosecutor, Crucius wore headphone-style ear protection and carried an AK-47-style rifle and started shooting inside the busy Walmart. Just minutes after the mass shooting, it was discovered that nearly 50 men and women were killed and wounded. This was described as the deadliest anti-Latino attack in modern American history.

In a report from The New York Times, officials from the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation said that the gunman attacked the victims because of their national origin. The indictment was announced on Thursday evening in El Paso.

Patrick Crucius was charged with the following crimes, with a total of 90 indictments:

  • 22 counts of hate crimes that resulted in the death of 22 individuals
  • 23 counts of hate crimes for attempted murder for those who were wounded
  • 45 counts for discharging a firearm in the commission of hate crime

Eric Dreidband, the assistant general attorney for civil rights, told media in El Paso on Thursday, "People in our nation have the right to go to a store on a Saturday morning without fear that they will be shot and killed because of who they are or where they are from." 

Dreidband also said that hate crime may be considered as an act of domestic terrorism as the suspect terrorized the whole community. 

Hate crimes committed against Latinos have spiked over the years and more than 13 percent from 2017 to 2018. This is based on the FBI's annual compilation of bias-motivated attacks. Moreover, the federal government has identified hate crime attacks as one of the leading national security threats in the country.

Most of the people who were killed and wounded in the shooting were Mexicans or Mexican-Americans. Minutes before the shooting, the suspect posted an anti-immigrant manifesto declaring that the attack he made was a response to the invasion of Hispanics in Texas and all the problems Hispanics caused and will cause.

Moreover, Hispanic residents, elected officials, and activists in El Paso and other cities in Texas, have been calling on the Trump administration to call the Wallmart shooting a hate crime. They are calling on the administration to take federal action in the largest anti-Latino attack in the history of the United States. This is a call that is almost the same as with the case of Dylann S. Roof where he killed nine black parishioners in 2015 and was convicted with 33 federal charges that included hate crime charges.

Cesar Blanco, a Texas State Representative, said: "This was the intersection of racism and mass violence and what he did in our community, based on the manifesto that was posted in advance of the massacre, definitely tells us where his mind was."

Meanwhile, Crucius was indicted with 90 counts in September and the state charged him with capital murder. This crime in Texas is punishable by death or life imprisonment without any possibilities of parole. Moreover, the State Prosecutors vowed to seek the death penalty for Crucius.

However, William P. Barr, the attorney general, will decide later on whether to seek a death penalty or not according to the officials.