Texas Shooting Gets Official Designation

And an anti-immigrant screed has been linked to the shooter
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 4, 2019 12:00 PM CDT
Texas Shooting Gets Official Designation
Edie Hallberg cries while speaking to police outside a Walmart store where a shooting occurred earlier in the day as she looks for her missing mother Angie Englisbee, who was in the store during the attack in El Paso, Texas, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019.   (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

A Justice Department official says the federal government is treating the El Paso shooting that killed 20 people as a "domestic terrorist" case, the AP reports. US Attorney John Bash said Sunday in El Paso that the feds are also investigating the attack at a shopping plaza with a view toward bringing federal hate crime charges. Meanwhile, the police chief in El Paso is linking a racist, anti-immigrant screed posted online shortly before the shooting to the suspect in custody. The document expressed concern that an influx of Hispanics into the US will replace aging white voters, potentially turning Texas blue in elections and swinging the White House to the Democrats. El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza told reporters that the state of Texas also plans to seek the death penalty. (More Texas mass shooting stories.)

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