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"Five and a half years ago, Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old with a documented history of mental illness, stopped at a Walmart in the border city of El Paso, heard everyone around him speaking in Spanish, and decided “the invasion” that then-President Donald J. Trump often spoke of was underway.
Mr. Crusius’s rampage on Aug. 3, 2019, took the lives of 23 people, both U.S. citizens and Mexican nationals who had crossed the border to do some shopping, becoming the deadliest attack on Hispanic civilians in American history.
His attorney, Joe Spencer, said on Tuesday in an interview ahead of his client’s sentencing hearing scheduled for April 21 for state charges that Mr. Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric was to blame. The president’s words, combined with “severe mental illness,” fueled Mr. Crusius’s hate, the lawyer said in his office in El Paso.
“He thinks this is the invasion,” said Mr. Spencer, who has represented the gunman since his arrest. He added, “In his mind, he’s saying, ‘I’m getting a direct order from the president. I have to do something.’”
...Mental illness and white supremacy proved to be an incendiary mix. The gunman became lost in racist, far-right corners of the internet that espoused the “White Replacement” theory, a conspiracy that maintains people of color are being imported to the country to destroy the power and prosperity of white people, Mr. Spencer said.
Link
He might have became "lost in racist, far-right corners of the internet that espoused the “White Replacement” theory" but he could have also heard it from watching Tucker Carlson Show, Trump or Elise Stephanik.
Mr. Crusius’s rampage on Aug. 3, 2019, took the lives of 23 people, both U.S. citizens and Mexican nationals who had crossed the border to do some shopping, becoming the deadliest attack on Hispanic civilians in American history.
His attorney, Joe Spencer, said on Tuesday in an interview ahead of his client’s sentencing hearing scheduled for April 21 for state charges that Mr. Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric was to blame. The president’s words, combined with “severe mental illness,” fueled Mr. Crusius’s hate, the lawyer said in his office in El Paso.
“He thinks this is the invasion,” said Mr. Spencer, who has represented the gunman since his arrest. He added, “In his mind, he’s saying, ‘I’m getting a direct order from the president. I have to do something.’”
...Mental illness and white supremacy proved to be an incendiary mix. The gunman became lost in racist, far-right corners of the internet that espoused the “White Replacement” theory, a conspiracy that maintains people of color are being imported to the country to destroy the power and prosperity of white people, Mr. Spencer said.
Link
He might have became "lost in racist, far-right corners of the internet that espoused the “White Replacement” theory" but he could have also heard it from watching Tucker Carlson Show, Trump or Elise Stephanik.
