As victims of the white supremacist shooting that claimed the lives of 10 black Americans in Buffalo learned Friday that the Biden Administration would seek the death penalty for the 2022 massacre, victims of another hate crime are wondering why that racist murderer was spared.
Federal prosecutors under the Biden Administration also sought the death penalty for the shooter in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue 2018 massacre– finding the victims were targeted because of their faith.
However, Biden’s Department of Justice did not ask for the death penalty in the 2019 Walmart mass shooting where the confessed killer hunted down Hispanics– driving 10 hours to El Paso, Texas where he murdered 23 people.
‘It’s racist,’ Former El Paso Mayor Dee Margo told the DailyMail.com Friday of the DOJ’s decisions.
‘I can’t reconcile it. It’s wrong. It’s wrong. It can be construed as racist.’
In February 2023, Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty to 90 federal hate crimes, where he admitted to driving for 10 hours from the Dallas area to El Paso, Texas to find Hispanics and kill them. In images from surveillance video, pictured above, Crusius can be seen walking into an El Paso Walmart store in 2019 armed and ready to kill
Even though Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty in 2023, federal prosecutor from the Biden Administration announced they would not seek the death penalty before they reached a plea deal with the killer
Republican Dee Margo (pictured at the podium) was mayor of El Paso, Texas during the August 2019 Walmart massacre
Patrick Crusius, a self-described white nationalist, pleaded guilty to 90 federal hate crimes related to the Walmart shooting in 2023, admitting he was trying to kill as many Hispanic immigrants as possible, believe they were invading the US.
Even before Crusius’ guilty plea, prosecutors within Biden’s DOJ had already made the decision not to pursue the death penalty for Crusius.
At the time, federal prosecutors did not explain how they arrived at their decision, instead filing a one-sentence court motion stating the death penalty was off the table.
All three cases were prosecuted as federal hate crimes, making the shooters eligible to receive a death sentence, as the Pittsburgh shooter Robert Bowers, 50, did, according to the DOJ.
‘I feel like we’re treated differently than Pittsburgh or Buffalo, and that’s wrong,’ Margo added. ‘There should be consistency in the application of the law.”
Paul Jamrowski, father of Jordan Anchondo and father in-law of Andre Anchondo, who both died in the El Paso Walmart mass shooting, breaks down in tears while speaking to the media outside the federal court in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, July 5. Patrick Crusius is set to receive multiple life sentences after pleading guilty to federal hate crimes in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history
Margo says federal prosecutors under the Trump administration had stated their intention to seek the death penalty for the El Paso shooter
Hilda Reckard, daughter-in-law of El Paso Walmart shooting victim Margie Reckard, holds a picture of her relative outside the federal court in El Paso, Texas on, July 7,
The Texas Republican, who was mayor on Aug. 3, 2019– the bloodiest day in El Paso history– attended the funerals of all 23 people who were killed and met with many survivors who were maimed and their lives altered forever.
Margo has also attended all the court hearings related to the mass shooting.
When Crusius pleaded guilty, Margo said he spoke to federal prosecutors in El Paso and asked why they didn’t seek federal death penalty.
‘I said, “Why did you seek the death penalty? Why were you unable to.” He said it was a decision made by the Biden AG,’ Margo claimed.
Margo said federal prosecutors in El Paso indicated they were also disappointed by the decision that had been made by higher ups in the department.
Former President Donald Trump visited El Paso after the 2019 massacre and was greeted by then-Mayor Dee Margo and US Senator Ted Cruz and John Cornyn
Walmart employees pay their respects at a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims, at the Cielo Vista Mall Walmart in August 2019
The attack at the El Paso Walmart left residents in the border city feeling vulnerable, since the killer’s only goal was to kill Hispanics. El Paso’s population is overwhelming of Mexican descent
At the time of the shooting, former President Donald Trump was in office.
At the time, Margo said he was promised by DOJ officials did intend to seek the death penalty.
President Joe Biden is the first president to openly oppose the death penalty and campaigned on abolishing it, however, in both the Pittsburg and Buffalo shootings, his officials have stated that the death penalty is key to bringing justice to victims.
‘We hope that this civil rights prosecution brings a measure of closure and highlights the determination of the Justice Department to protect people from antisemitic violence and other hate crimes in our country,’ Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said after the synagogue sentencing.
In Texas, Crusius still faces the death penalty at the state level.
The local prosecutor has stated that convicting and securing a death sentence for Crusius is his top priority.
However, the state case still has no trial date, as the local district attorney’s office has been plagued with a string of prosecutors working on the Walmart case quitting and other delays.
Bill Hicks, the district attorney for West Texas, was appointed to the position by Gov. Greg Abbott last month.
The former DA Yvonne Rosales had handled the case before that, but was forced out of office under accusations of incompetency and mishandling of multiple cases, including the Walmart shooting.
‘By far, this this is the case that impact the most people in town, there’s never been a bigger case,’ Margo explained. ‘There’s a level of disappointment, which is why there needs to be a death penalty at the state level.’