“They didn’t sound like gunshots, it sounded more like something fell to the floor,” Gonzalez, 37, told CNN.
She said she stepped up to see what was happening and that’s when she saw the shooter near the main entrance, wearing headphones or earmuffs and carrying a gun.
“I could only think about getting my mom and others out of the store,” she said. “We gotta get out of here.”
Twenty people were killed and 26 people were injured when a 21-year old white man from Allen, Texas, opened fire at an El Paso shopping center Saturday, according to Texas and local authorities.
The suspect is in custody and authorities are looking at the possibility of bringing capital murder charges against him. Both local law enforcement and the FBI are investigating.
The FBI has opened a domestic terrorism investigation into the massacre, a source familiar with the investigation process said Saturday.
The case has a “nexus to a potential hate crime,” El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said. FBI El Paso Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie said more investigative work was needed before determining whether there was a possible hate crime.
‘This was a massacre’
The first call of an active shooter went out at 10:39 a.m. local time, Allen said. The first officer arrived on scene at the Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall six minutes later.
Multiple agencies responded to the scene, including the FBI, the sheriff’s department, the state Department of Public Safety and Border Patrol.
Officials from two local hospitals said they had received at least 23 people.
Thirteen people were taken to University Medical Center of El Paso, spokesman Ryan Mielke told CNN, and one of them has died. Two children with non-life-threatening injuries were transferred to a children’s medical facility, Mielke said.
Eleven victims were transported to the Del Sol Medical Center, hospital spokesman Victor Guerrero said. Nine are in critical but stable condition, he said.
At least two of the patients are in a “life-threatening predicament,” according to Del Sol Medical Center Dr. Stephen Flaherty. He said the patients ranged in age from 25 to 82.
Of the 20 killed, three were Mexican nationals, according to a tweet from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Of the 26 injured, six were Mexican, Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard wrote on Twitter.
“The ages and genders of all these people injured and killed are numerous in the age groups,” Allen said. “The situation, needless to say, is a horrific one.”
“This was a massacre,” US Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents the area, told CNN. Escobar has received conflicting reports on the numbers of casualties, she said, but added, “The numbers are shocking.”
The victims inside the Walmart will remain at the scene where they were gunned down. Authorities say the bodies cannot be removed until the crime scene is processed — which could take days.
“One murder occurrence can take all day, now we have 20 victims, El Paso Police Sgt. Robert Gomez told reporters Saturday, adding that police are working to diagram the scene, collect evidence and identify victims. “It may be exponentially longer.”
“I can tell you that the investigators are doing their best to complete this investigation proper with the respect and dignity that the victims deserve,” Gomez said.
Who police believe is responsible
CNN reported the suspect is 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, according to three sources. Allen is a suburb of Dallas, about a 650-mile drive from El Paso.
He is in police custody and investigators are speaking with him, Gomez told reporters.
Part of what they are investigating is a document they believe the suspect posted to an online message board, 8chan.
The 2,300-word document, which police called a “manifesto,” was attached to a post that said, “I’m probably going to die today.”
The writing is filled with white nationalist language and racist hatred toward immigrants and Latinos, blaming immigrants and first-generation Americans for taking away jobs.
The writer cites a fear that an influential Hispanic population in Texas would make the state a “Democratic stronghold,” though he said “the Republican Party is also terrible,” because the GOP is in his mind pro-corporation, which can lead to more immigration.
The writer of the document said they held these beliefs for years, before Trump was elected president.
The author says it took less than a month to plan the shooting.
What witnesses saw
After she saw the shooter, Gonzalez said she saw a grade-school aged boy get shot in the leg, a man bleeding on the floor and another man, covered in blood, reaching for a nearby child.
“We heard two to three shots, four to five shots, then six to seven shots,” Gonzalez told CNN.
She and her mother took off — along with about 40 other people, Gonzalez said. They waited in a storage area of the store until they no longer heard the gunfire.
“You see this happening in the movies, but when you live it yourself, when you see a person killing, the blood everywhere, you are in shock,” she said.
A video, shot from outside the Walmart, showed people lying on the ground, some of them next to a table set up by the store’s entrance.
“There’s a man lying down at the stand that a school set up,” the man holding the camera says in Spanish.
“Help!” a man screams in English.
“We need CPR,” someone else says. “We need CPR.”
Walmart issued a statement regarding the shooting, saying, “We’re in shock over the tragic events at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso. … We’re praying for the victims, the community & our associates, as well as the first responders.”
CNN’s Hollie Silverman, Josh Campbell, Evan Perez, Ed Lavandera, Paul P. Murphy, Artemis Moshtaghian Kay Guerrero, Theresa Waldrop, Artemis Moshtaghian, Shawn Nottingham and Jay Croft contributed to this report.
