Mexico Considering Legal Action Over El Paso Shooting
Written by SOURCE on August 5, 2019
Following the mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso that left innocent people 20 dead, Mexico is considering legal action for what they are directly calling a terrorist attack.
“The fact that Mexicans have lost their lives, forces us to take the corresponding legal actions with respect to arms,” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said of the attack, per Reuters. Seven victims in the attack have been confirmed to be from Mexico, with Ebrard also stating in a news conference that the attacker—an alleged white nationalist who may face hate crime and capital murder charges—”is a terrorist.”
The U.S. was also called on by Ebrard to take a hard stance against hate crimes and related violence, as well as to make gun safety a focus, with any impending legal action said to possibly result in an extradition request for the suspected attacker.
Ebrard said that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had told him to move toward litigation as a way of protecting families and so that the country could “demand that the United States protect the Mexican community in the United States.”
Ebrard also named the seven Mexican victims:
The attacker, a 21-year-old white man, was arrested after opening fire with an assault-style rifle at a Walmart. The man is alleged to have shared a document online in which the attack was described as a reaction to “the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” leading many worldwide to further criticize the language from the current White House administration regarding immigration.
“We will bring the full resources of the FBI to bear in the pursuit of justice for the victims of these crimes,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement Sunday. Per BBC News, John Bash—the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas—said over the weekend that the attack was being handled “as a domestic terrorist case.”
