Second deadly U.S. mass shooting in 24 hours
US. (QNN)- Two mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton took place in less than 24 hours, leaving dozens of victims.
The first shooting took place at a supermarket in El Paso, Texas near the US-Mexico border.
A 21-year-old white man identified as Patrick Crusius was arrested where the attack took place, and he is believed to be a right-winger, as he has posted an online document calling the attack a response to “the Hispanic invasion of Texas”.
The suspect opened fire on a crowded Walmart with an assault-style rifle and surrendered after being confronted by officers outside the store. Saturday’s attack also left 26 injured.
“We’re treating this as a domestic terrorist case,” US Attorney for the Western District of Texas John Bash told a news conference, saying the attack appeared “to be designed to intimidate a civilian population, to say the least”.
In another shooting, a gunman in body armor opened fire at a popular bar in Dayton , killing nine people and injuring 27, before police approached the premises and fatally shot him.
The gunman carried extra high-capacity magazines, apparently planning for an extended rampage, but officers responded quickly.
Officials identified the shooter as 24-year old Connor Betts. Betts’s sister was among the nine fatalities, they said. Police have yet to announce a motive.
Last week, a gunman fired on a garlic festival in Gilroy, Calif., killing three people, including a 6-year-old boy, and wounding 12. On Monday, a disgruntled employee killed two people in a Walmart store in Mississippi. In May, a gunman killed 12 people at a municipal building in Virginia Beach. The month before, on the last day of Passover in April, a vocal anti-Semite allegedly attacked a synagogue in Poway, California, killing one person.
A survey made in 2018 revealed that despite that the United States has just 4% of the world population, it is estimated that civilians in the US possess almost 40% of the world’s firearms – 393m weapons – equivalent to 121 firearms for every 100 residents. Americans topped the polls in 2007, owning 270m weapons, which translated into 90 weapons for every 100 residents.
