U.S. Mass Killings on Record Pace

Date: 08 May 2023 - 22:36

News ID: ۱۱۴۸۵۰

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — At least eight people were killed after the driver of a vehicle plowed into a crowd of migrants on Sunday outside a center that serves homeless people in this city near the border with Mexico, the authorities said.
Seven of the people who were struck “were dead on the spot” when police arrived, Martin Sandoval, an investigator with the Brownsville Police Department, said. At least 10 people were injured, one of whom was airlifted to an area hospital. One person died later, the department confirmed on Sunday night.
Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. of Cameron County said the group was outside the Ozanam Center, near a bus stop, when a Range Rover barreled into them around 8:30 a.m. local time. The driver was injured and taken to a hospital, Judge Treviño said.
The driver, who was not publicly identified and was believed to be in his 30s or 40s, was charged with reckless driving and was detained, but more charges could be added, Sandoval said.
Police were looking into reports that he had uttered anti-immigration remarks.
All of the victims were believed to be migrants from Venezuela, many of whom had been coming to the border in anticipation of the lifting of Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic rule that allowed for the easy expulsion of migrants.
Victor Maldonado, executive director of the Ozanam Center, said the driver ran a red light before crashing into the crowd of about 20 people. “All bodies just started going everywhere, all directions,” he said.
A group of people detained the driver, who tried to flee, said Eyder Hernandez, one of those who stopped him. On the journey from Venezuela to Texas, the group of migrants became like a family, he said.
Michael Eduardo de Aponte Fonseca, who is from Caracas, Venezuela, said the driver had yelled anti-immigration insults to the group while he fled. One of the people hit by the car fell on Fonseca, he said.
The incident comes as the U.S. is

reeling from a former U.S. Marine, identified as Daniel Penny, choking a homeless black man to death on the New York subway they were both riding in.

The death of Jordan Neely, 30, last Monday has stoked an outcry over the lack of city support for those suffering from mental illness and homelessness and revived anger over treatment of non-white Americans.

Neely, who was Black, was homeless, according to media reports. The 24-year-old Penny, who was white, was questioned by police and released on Monday, media said. Protest organizers have called the act a “lynching” and an example of “white vigilantism” against people of color.

Meanwhile, federal officials were looking into whether the gunman who killed eight people at a Dallas-area mall expressed an interest in white supremacist ideology Sunday as they worked to discern a motive for the attack.

Federal agents have been reviewing social media accounts they believe were used by Mauricio Garcia, 33, and posts that expressed interest in white supremacist and neo-Nazi views, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

Garcia also had a patch on his chest when he was killed by police that read “RWDS,” an acronym for the phrase “Right Wing Death Squad,” which is popular among right-wing extremists and white supremacy groups, the official said.

In addition to reviewing social media posts, federal agents have interviewed family members and associates of Garcia to ask about his ideological beliefs, the official said. Investigators are also reviewing financial records, other online posts they believe Garcia made and other electronic media, according to the official.

The Texas Department of Public Safety identified Garcia as suspected of killing eight people at a Texas outlet mall, a day after the attack turned an afternoon of shopping into a massacre.

Garcia was fatally shot Saturday by a police officer who happened to be near the suburban Dallas mall.

A law enforcement official said investigators have been searching a Dallas motel near an interstate where Garcia had been staying. The official said police also found multiple weapons at the scene after Garcia was killed, including an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said the assailant wore tactical gear and fired an AR-15-style weapon. He urged Congress to enact tighter restrictions on firearms and ammunition.

“Such an attack is too shocking to be so familiar. And yet, American communities have suffered roughly 200 mass shootings already this year, according to leading counts,” said Biden, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff.

Republicans in Congress, he said, “cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug.”

The shooting was the latest attack to contribute to the unprecedented pace of mass killings this year in the U.S. Barely a week before, five people were fatally shot in Cleveland, Texas, after a neighbor asked a man to stop firing his weapon while a baby slept, authorities said.

This year has seen an average of about one mass killing per week, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.