It’s Monday, August, 5, 2019. Let’s start here.
1. The weekend’s 1st massacre
Twenty people were killed and dozens more injured in a shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where thousands were shopping on a busy Saturday morning.
Witnesses described hearing endless gunshots as they fled or took cover inside the store. U.S. Army soldier Glendon Oakley, who heroically carried several children to safety during the attack, said, “This was the worst thing I’ve ever been through in my life.”
Authorities identified the suspected gunman as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas. After he was taken into custody a few blocks from the scene, he allegedly told investigators he wanted to shoot as many Mexicans as possible, two law enforcement officials said to ABC News. Crusius has been charged with capital murder and may be charged with domestic terrorism.
Authorities also suspect Crusius wrote an anti-immigration screed online before the attack. The author of the four-page document wrote of a mounting culture war and desire to stop an ongoing “invasion” of Texas by Hispanic people. Investigators are trying to determine if the suspect had a connection to El Paso, just 5 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, which prompted him to drive 600 miles from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
ABC News’ Marcus Moore says on “Start Here” the community is filled with people with strong ties to Mexico: “The whole charm and the character of this place is one that’s international.”
2. The weekend’s 2nd massacre
Barely 13 hours after the slaughter in El Paso, a lone gunman in Dayton, Ohio, attacked the Oregon District, a popular downtown nightlife spot, just after 1 a.m. on Sunday, killing nine people and wounding 27.
Nearby officers heard gunfire and responded within approximately 20 seconds of the first shot, according to Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl.
The suspected gunman, 24-year-old Connor Stephen Betts, was killed by police. His younger sister, 22-year-old Megan Betts, was among the first victims.
Authorities don’t believe the attack was motivated by bias or linked to the El Paso shooting, but they are looking at the connection Betts had with his sister and a companion she was with, who was shot and injured, ABC News’ Ryan Burrow reports from Dayton.
“As authorities try to piece together a motive in this case … there is this interesting factor that at least two of the shooting victims were people that Connor Betts knew,” Burrow tells us.
3. ‘No place in our country’
President Donald Trump offered his condolences to the victims of both shootings, telling reporters after leaving his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Sunday, “Hate has no place in our country.”
JUST IN: President Trump speaks on back-to-back deadly mass shootings: “I want to extend our condolences to the people of El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, they’re incredible people and they’ve been through a lot.”
But some Democrats have laid responsibility for the shooting at the president’s feet, blaming his rhetoric for inciting violence.
“He doesn’t just tolerate, he encourages the kind of open racism and the violence that necessarily follows, that we saw here in El Paso, Texas,” Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic presidential candidate and former Texas congressman who lives in El Paso, said on ABC News’ “This Week.”
Trump, who praised the work of his administration in combating mass shootings but also suggested that “perhaps more has to be done,” said he would deliver another statement on the attacks on Monday. In the meantime, Democratic lawmakers are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring the Senate back from August recess and hold a vote on gun control legislation.
El Paso, Dayton, one awful event after another. @SenateMajLdr McConnell must call the Senate back for an emergency session to put the House-passed universal background checks legislation on the Senate floor for debate and a vote immediately.
ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega questions what Trump’s next move will be: “Will the president in the next coming hours, days, call this domestic terrorism? Will he forcefully denounce white nationalism and white supremacist views that we are seeing on the rise in this country?”
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Elsewhere but here:
In 2019, the U.S. is averaging a mass shooting every 12 days: More than half of this year’s 51 killings were in the last 48 hours.
From our friends at FiveThirtyEight:
Mass shootings are a bad way to understand gun violence: This piece was originally published Oct. 3, 2017.
Doff your cap:
Today, we somberly end this column with a nod of respect and admiration toward Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand lawmakers for reasons that should be abundantly clear.
