El Paso Shooting Anniversary: Victims Remembered, Justice Pending

By Mary Anne R. Aug 03 2020, 01:20 AM EDT

On August 3 last year, a total of 23 people became victims of the sixth deadliest shooting in the U.S. history. The victims' loved ones commemorate the event amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The shooting has been described as the deadliest attack in Latinos in modern U.S history.

Yolando Tinajero, sister of the El Paso shooting victim Arturo Benavides, found herself returning again and again in the makeshift memorial that was created to honor the victims of the El Paso shooting. Benavides was among the 23 victims that was shot by a reported white supremacist.

Commemorating the massacre amid the coronavirus pandemic may be hard since there's no spontaneous hugs from strangers and gatherings.

"When we would go and visit the memorial they had behind Walmart. There were strangers. There was a particular old lady there and she said, 'I hope they give this man the death penalty'," Tinajero was quoted in an El Paso Times report.

Benavides was a retired city bus driver and was a U.S. veteran Army, who also served in the Texas Amy National Guard.

Meanwhile, survivor of the El Paso shooting Adria Renee Gozales recalled what happened during the shooting incident. Gonzales said she was shopping with her mother when the first shots were heard. She was also credited to save the lives of people during the shooting.

Gonzales admitted in an NPR interview that the event had affected her life.

"Our psychologist, our therapist tells us, you know, you have to get out a little bit. And we do. But we sometimes are worried about, you know, who is going to attack us or who's going to judge us or what if this is going to happen again," she was quoted in a report.

Gonzales said she was still trying to understand why the shooter did it.

"I still don't understand why. Why so much hate against us? - because I know my people come, and they try to do their best and try to work and try to, you know, live a better life," she said.

Anti-Latino Hate Crimes

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a 2019 Reuters report that the number of victims in anti-Latino hate crime increase by over 21 percent in 2018. The FBI added that the attacks overall are targeting people instead of property.

The data corresponds with an ongoing debate over President Donad Trump's immigration policies, following the El Paso shooting.

The suspected gunman told police that he was targeting Mexicans.

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said attacks against Muslims increased around 2016 when terrorism was a concern. Now that immigration is on the list of issues, Latinos are being targeted.

Justice for El Paso Shooting

El Paso mass shooter Patrick Crusius was charged with federal hate crimes and firearms laws, according to an Aljazeera report.

A year after the incident attorney Yvonne Rosales has to decide whether to push for a death penalty prosecution on the city's deadliest shooting incident. However, Rosales said she does not think that justice will come soon with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the complexity of the case, according to a Texas Tribune report.

Rosales added that she must also consider whether the community, especially the victims' families should relive the tragedy twice by having two separate trials.

Crusius has pleaded not guilty despite confessing that he was the gunman.