Global Courant
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A white gunman from Texas who killed 23 people in a racist attack on Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in 2019 agreed Monday to pay more than $5 million to the victims’ families.
Patrick Crusius was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences in July after pleading guilty to federal hate crime charges following one of the nation’s worst mass killings. U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama signed off on the amount Crusius must pay in restitution.
There is no indication that Crusius, 25, has significant assets. He was 21 years old and had dropped out of community college when police said he drove more than 700 miles from his home near Dallas to attack Hispanics inside and outside the store with an AK-style rifle. Just before the attack began, Crusius posted a racist screed online that warned of a Hispanic “invasion” of Texas.
He once worked in a movie theater, a job his lawyers say Crusius had to leave because he had violent thoughts.
Crusius pleaded guilty in February after federal prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. But Texas prosecutors have said they will seek to place Crusius on death row if he goes to trial. That trial date has not yet been determined.
Under the agreement between Crusius and the government, Crusius will pay $5,557,005.55.
Joe Spencer, an attorney for Crusius, and a Justice Department spokesman did not immediately return messages Monday. Both parties had filed a joint agreement with the court, which was subsequently approved by Guaderrama.
In January, the Ministry of Justice proposed changes how it manages the deposit accounts of federal prisoners in an effort to ensure victims receive restitution, including from some high-profile inmates with large balances. The move came as the Justice Department came under increasing scrutiny following revelations that several high-profile prisoners had large sums of money in their prison accounts but had made only minimal payments to their victims.
The 2019 attack was the deadliest of a dozen mass shootings in the US linked to hate crimes since 2006, according to compiled a database by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
Before the shooting, Crusius seemed consumed with the country’s immigration debate, tweeting #BuildtheWall and other social media posts praising then-President Donald Trump’s tough border policies. Crusius continued his tirade posted before the attack, warning that the Iberians would take over the government and economy.
