EP. 217 - TEXAS: The El Paso Walmart Shooting (Pt. 1)

In 2019, a vicious crime rocked the West Texas town of El Paso, when a man drove into town with a heart full of hatred. At the end of that fateful day, over 20 people would be dead, and a horrifying story of hatred would begin to rapidly unravel. In today's episode, we explore the background of the shooter, and what may have driven him to commit such a horrific crime. - Listen to our new show, "THE CONSPIRACY FILES"!: -Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5IY9nWD2MYDzlSYP48nRPl -Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/id1752719844 -Amazon/Audible - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/ab1ade99-740c-46ae-8028-b2cf41eabf58/the-conspiracy-files -Pandora - https://www.pandora.com/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/PC:1001089101 -iHeart - https://iheart.com/podcast/186907423/ -PocketCast - https://pca.st/dpdyrcca -CastBox - https://castbox.fm/channel/id6193084?country=us - Stay Connected: Join the Murder in America fam in our free Facebook Community for a behind-the-scenes look, more insights and current events in the true crime world: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4365229996855701 If you want even more Murder in America bonus content, including ad-free episodes, come join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderinamerica Instagram: http://instagram.com/murderinamerica/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/people/Murder-in-America-Podcast/100086268848682/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderInAmerica TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theparanormalfiles and https://www.tiktok.com/@courtneybrowen Feeling spooky? Follow Colin as he travels state to state (and even country to country!) investigating claims of extreme paranormal activity and visiting famous haunted locations on The Paranormal Files Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheParanormalFilesOfficialChannel - (c) BLOOD IN THE SINK PRODUCTIONS 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Colin Brown?

  Warning: The following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects.

• 0:12Courtney Brown?

  Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children.

• 0:18Colin Brown?

  This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned.

• 0:22Courtney Brown?

  If you're an American, then you can probably picture exactly what the inside of a Walmart looks like. When you walk through the automatic doors, you're blinded by their bright lights. To your right, you'll see the shopping carts. Directly in front of you, you're greeted by a Walmart employee who is wearing their blue and yellow colored vests. Once you step inside, you'll see the produce and bakery section to your right, the cash registers to your left. Near the front of the store, they'll typically have a bank, a customer service desk, restrooms, and maybe a McDonald's. It's an image that most Americans know well,

• 1:02Courtney Brown?

  but on the morning of August 3rd, 2019, a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, looked a lot different than the one we picture in our heads. The bright lights were clouded in gunsmoke. The sound of distant chatter and the beep of the cash registers were replaced with screams and gunfire. The bright white floors had turned a deep red, and people weren't just browsing the aisles for their weekly shopping trip. Instead, they were hiding among the merchandise and running for their lives. Within three short minutes, there were dozens of people injured, and 23 others who would lose their lives. All because of a man named Patrick

• 1:45Courtney Brown?

  Wood Crucius. Today's episode is about the shooter and his motivations for the attack. But if you don't want to listen to that, part two will be about the shooting itself, and of course, the victims. If you're a Patreon member, that episode is available now. But this is the story of the El Paso Walmart mass shooting, part one. I'm Courtney Brown.

• 2:08Colin Brown?

  And I'm Colin Brown.

• 2:10Courtney Brown?

  And you're listening to Murder in America.

• 3:13Colin Brown?

  The Crucius family seemed like your perfectly normal family in the affluent suburbs of Dallas. The father, Brian, was a licensed professional counselor. He had a practice in Richardson, Texas, where he used therapy, acupuncture, and meditation to help people suffering from anxiety, drug, and alcohol abuse. The mother, Lori, worked as a hospice admissions nurse in town. Together, they had three children, Blake, the oldest son, and then Patrick, and Emily, who were twins born on July 27, 1998. The family lived in a nice five-bedroom house with a manicured lawn. They were well off, and it seemed as if the Crucius children had all the tools and opportunities to be good people in this world.

• 3:57Colin Brown?

  However, from the very beginning, Patrick seemed to be different.

• 4:01Courtney Brown?

  His twin sister Emily developed much faster than he did. She was crawling, walking, and communicating long before he was. As they grew older, Emily was friendly and kind to other kids their age, while Patrick was quiet and kind of awkward. He was an active member in their school's choir, but he never had any friends. One of his former classmates at Beverly Elementary School said that everyone labeled him as the "strange one." Patrick himself would later admit that he was just a child when he realized he was different. It's around that age when he started having violent thoughts. He also admitted that he would sometimes use his pump gun to kill animals,

• 4:46Courtney Brown?

  and he was very sensitive to touch and sound. When he was in the 7th grade, his teacher would ring a bell to quiet the class, and according to his classmates, he would always cover his ears in discomfort. Now, Patrick would later claim that he was autistic, but he never actually received that diagnosis. However, his parents did have a long history of mental illness.

• 5:10Colin Brown?

  According to The Washington Post, both of his parents had been on antipsychotic medication for decades. His father, Brian, also suffered from drug and alcohol addiction. But this wasn't something he kept private. Brian was very honest about his issues. He even wrote about it in a book he published in 2014 titled, "Life Enthusiasm: A Path to Purpose Beyond Recovery." In the book, he wrote that his drug addiction started during his teenage years with marijuana. Then, as time went on, he started abusing harder drugs. He wrote, "I was always the one daring everyone else to go over the top in the partying category by taking the extreme amounts of whatever we had, whether Quaaludes, alcohol, magic mushrooms, or something else."

• 5:55Colin Brown?

  Brian went on to say that, over the years, he would have bouts of sobriety, but he always seemed to relapse, which ended up affecting his relationship with his wife Lori. For years, while living under the same roof, they didn't have a good marriage. In fact, Brian lived in a completely separate room of the house. They were estranged roommates, more than they were husband and wife. And finally, in 2011, Lori filed for divorce. According to Brian's book, it should be no surprise to receive divorce papers from a spouse whom I had been essentially estranged for years. I'd allowed myself to slip further into a numbed existence, giving up genuine parts of myself with each new denial.

• 6:36Courtney Brown?

  Now divorce is hard on any child. Patrick was 13 years old when his parents separated. In fact, that Christmas, their mother seemed so fed up with everything. She left and went to Oklahoma, leaving the kids all by themselves. Their father Brian would later write about this in his book. He found out Lori left when his daughter Emily called. The book read, quote, "It was my daughter wanting to know when I would be home because she needed a ride to a friend's house. I asked, 'Where's your mom? Can she take you?' An uncomfortable silence filled the air. And finally, she replied, 'She left this morning for Oklahoma.' 'What?' I said, feeling quite surprised.

• 7:19Courtney Brown?

  She had not told me of any trip or advised me that she was leaving. What was shocking on the surface was to realize that my spouse had taken off without leaving an adult in charge." End quote. Brian said that when he finally came home, his kids were shocked by the way he looked. He wrote, quote, "My 17-year-old son stared at me in disbelief. I sheepishly went up the stairs in a cloud of shame. My behavior the last few years had placed him in a state of fear and uncertainty. He was the oldest and had taken on responsibility by default as the man of the house." End quote. And for 13-year-old Patrick, there wasn't just tension at home, but at school as well.

• 8:03Courtney Brown?

  Throughout his entire life, Patrick was never close to anyone outside of his family. He was described as lonely, odd, and antisocial. In 2013, he had to switch high schools due to his mom's career change, and the change of scenery was hard on him. Patrick claimed he was bullied for his quiet nature. He also often wore his older brother's hand-me-downs, which made him a target. So knowing he was an outcast, he usually kept to himself. While in high school, he worked as a bag boy at the local market street. He liked the job. On his now-deleted LinkedIn, he wrote, "Pretty good trade, though. Worked part-time anywhere from 5 to 25 hours a week,

• 8:47Courtney Brown?

  with shifts averaging about 5 hours." Now Patrick didn't have a car at the time, so his mom would have to drop him off at work every day. But after a while, he had to quit due to transportation issues. Now on the weekends, while his twin sister was making friends and socializing, Patrick stayed in his bedroom, browsing the internet for hours on end and playing Halo. When his sister Emily would invite people over, he hardly ever interacted with them. If anything, he would just say hi and then run to his room. But Emily would always defend her twin brother. If anyone ever asked her why Patrick acted the way he did, she would respond, "He's just quiet."

• 9:32Courtney Brown?

  One guy named Jacob Ames, who worked with Emily at the Cinemark Theater, told The Washington Post, "He always seemed kind of off-putting. I can usually tell if someone is kind of not all there, and it just seemed like he would think a lot, a big thinker in his head all the time." Jacob also said that Patrick always wore the same clothing: baseball shorts and a plain t-shirt.

• 9:57Colin Brown?

  According to an old classmate named Jake Wilson, anytime there was a group project in class, Patrick was the kid that no one wanted to work with. And not because they were being mean, but because of his off-putting behavior. When things wouldn't go his way, he was known to get irritable and have a short temper. Oftentimes, he would just walk away and start working all by himself. But it was said that Patrick did enjoy some parts of school. According to old classmates, while Patrick hardly ever spoke, he was a lot more talkative in the classes he enjoyed, like calculus and his law enforcement class. In the yearbook, he was quoted as saying, "It's interesting to learn about how the world of law enforcement works." But during those classes, he was known to ask a lot of questions.

• 10:43Colin Brown?

  He was also known to yell out strange things. A girl named Ariana, who sat next to him, said, "He was definitely an outcast. A lot of people would make fun of him. He would say things that would make people laugh. But they weren't laughing with him. They were laughing at him." Now, Patrick claimed that his high school bullies were Hispanic, and he would later tell detectives that that's where his hatred for Mexicans started.

• 11:06Courtney Brown?

  But despite being an outcast in school, he seemed to stay out of trouble. There was an instance in high school where Patrick called the police after accidentally setting off his grandparents' house alarm. Then in 2014, his parents reported him missing, but then thirty minutes later, they called again to say he returned back home. So for the most part, Patrick seemed harmless. But according to his old classmates, they started to see a change in him during his junior year. He seemed even more depressed and withdrawn. He started wearing trench coats, an article of clothing that is sometimes associated with school shooters. But as we know, Patrick wouldn't shoot up his school.

• 11:49Courtney Brown?

  That violence would come years later. However, it is around this time where we start to see his decline. Following high school graduation in 2017, Patrick enrolled in a community college. And just like in high school, the students found him strange. He was known to zone out in class and mutter things under his breath. If he ever did speak up in class, it was always, quote, "strange, off-the-wall comments," end quote. And soon enough, his grades started dropping. Strangely enough, he even admitted this on his LinkedIn profile.

• 12:27Colin Brown?

  I'm not really motivated to do anything more than what's necessary. Working in general sucks, but I guess a career in software development suits me well. I spend about eight hours every day on the computer, so that counts towards technology experience, I guess. Pretty much just gonna see what technology careers present themselves to me. Go with the wind.

• 12:46Courtney Brown?

  Additionally, under the skills portion of his LinkedIn, he wrote, quote, "Nothing really." Now in 2018, while in college, Patrick moved in with his grandparents, Larry and Cynthia Brown. Before that, he was living with his mom, but she had sold their house. But one of his grandparents' neighbors, Leanne Locasio, would later tell the Los Angeles Times, quote, "Patrick was very much a loner, very standoffish," end quote. She also said that he spoke negatively of children who participated in school activities. But during this time, Patrick continued neglecting his schooling, and instead, he spent the

• 13:28Courtney Brown?

  majority of his time on the internet, specifically on a website called H-Chan, which has been deemed one of the most vile places on the internet. Now, H-Chan was started in 2013 by a man named Frederick Brennan. He wanted to create a platform where you could anonymously post whatever you wanted. Now, before H-Chan was a website called 4chan, which was similar, but Brennan felt like it was too moderated. So from there, he decided to create H-Chan, where you could essentially post whatever, no matter how graphic, vulgar, or disturbing. And you didn't even have to register to create your account.

• 14:10Courtney Brown?

  So everything you posted was completely anonymous. As you can imagine, people started using this platform to talk about the most vile things you can imagine. Over time, the site was filled with racism, misogyny, homophobia, you name it.

• 14:28Courtney Brown?

  The website was also filled with a bunch of pornography. And because there was a lack of checks and balances, some of that was even child sexual abuse material. But while the website was supposed to be a place of free expression, it quickly turned into a forum full of white supremacists, people who glorified the Nazi Party. Racial slurs were commonly used. And sometimes, you would even have users who would call for violence against minority groups.

• 14:58Colin Brown?

  Patrick would go on these sites for hours a day, reading through all of the hateful and extremist content the site had to offer. And every post he read seemed to confirm his own sick thoughts. He would absorb other people's ideas as well. His defense attorney, Joe Spencer, would later say, "He was there. His whole world was in his computer because he was just socially in it." But the content he seemed to really resonate with were the posts about immigrants. As we all know, in 2019, there was a lot of talk about immigration here in America. Then-President Trump's campaign had focused on immigration and had blamed immigrants for America's problems. And his efforts to build the wall between Mexico and America were widely publicized. And Patrick felt very strongly about this.

• 15:43Colin Brown?

  On his social media, under the username @outsider609, Patrick wrote, "Hashtag #BuildTheWall is the best way that @POTUS has worked to secure our country so far." And there were a lot of people on 8chan anonymously sharing their thoughts on immigration as well. For Patrick, this rhetoric only seemed to intensify the hatred he already felt. But according to him, everything would change on March 15, 2019.

• 16:13Courtney Brown?

  That day, over in Christchurch, New Zealand, a 28-year-old Australian named Brenton Tarant started a livestream on Facebook from a helmet cam. As viewers joined the live, they watched as Brenton walked to the back of his parked car, opened the trunk, and grabbed a rifle. He then makes his way into the Al-Nor Mosque and begins shooting people in their place of prayer. And it's all being livestreamed for the world to see. The video is absolutely horrific. It's essentially a mass shooter's point of view. And the terror you see in those people's eyes, and the absolute carnage that he caused, is unbelievable.

• 16:56Courtney Brown?

  Now, the livestream did end after this first attack, but the shooter wasn't finished. After leaving this mosque, he made his way to another called Lenwood Islamic Center, where he killed dozens more. Finally, as he was on his way to another mosque in town, the police rammed his car and he was ultimately arrested. But in the end, he took the lives of 51 people and injured close to 100. Now, Brenton specifically targeted mosques because he was a white supremacist who hated Muslims. He was also extremely anti-immigration. In fact, shortly before he carried out the shooting, the gunman actually posted a manifesto on the site H-Chan.

• 17:41Courtney Brown?

  It was titled "The Great Replacement", and in part, it read this:

• 17:46Colin Brown?

  "Mass immigration and the higher fertility rate of the immigrants themselves are causing this increase in population. We are experiencing an invasion on a level never seen before in history. Millions of people pouring across our borders legally, invited by the state and corporate entities to replace the white people who have failed to reproduce, failed to create the cheap labor, new consumers and tax base that the corporations and states need to thrive."

• 18:11Courtney Brown?

  When word of this mass shooting spread, there were many users on H-Chan who praised the shooter. They were inspired by his actions. Some even encouraged others to, quote, "top his high score." Patrick Croceus would later say that after reading the New Zealand shooter's manifesto, "The Great Replacement", he decided that he was going to commit an attack of his own, except he would target the immigrants here in America.

• 18:39Colin Brown?

  Shortly after this, on April 27th, 2019, another hate crime would take place when 19-year-old John Ernest walked into a synagogue in Poway, California, armed with an AR-15. He opened fire on a group of people inside, killing one and injuring three others. Shortly before the mass shooting, he too posted a manifesto on 8chan. It read, "Every Jew is responsible for the meticulously-planned genocide of the European race. They act as a unit, and every Jew plays his part to enslave the other races around him, whether consciously or subconsciously. Their crimes are endless, for their role in the murder of the Son of Man, that is the Christ. Every Jew, young and old, has contributed to these. For these crimes, they deserve nothing but hell.

• 19:24Colin Brown?

  I will send them there." So this is the type of rhetoric that Patrick was consuming on the regular, and from that point on, he started silently planning an attack of his own. With this newfound purpose, Patrick stopped caring about school entirely. On one occasion, he even showed up drunk to class. On April 9th, 2019, he received a disciplinary letter from Collin College that read, "Dear Mr. Crucius, An incident report was received from Professor Redacted stating he was concerned about you when he spoke to you privately during your chem lab. You admitted you had a couple of drinks prior to class." Now, we don't actually know what outcome came from this violation, if Patrick was expelled or placed on probation, but eventually, he dropped out of school.

• 20:09Colin Brown?

  Things clearly weren't going well for him. He no longer had a job, he wasn't in school, and he still had no friends. Just this burning hatred in his heart for immigrants here in America. At one point, he Googled if it was normal to have violent thoughts. There are also reports that he started seeing a therapist, but it didn't seem to be making a difference, because in June of 2019, Patrick, now 20 years old, took the very first step in his demented plan when he legally purchased his first firearm, a Romanian-made semi-automatic rifle.

• 20:42Courtney Brown?

  He bought the gun online and had it shipped to a local gun store in Allen, Texas, called Gun Master. But that summer, when Patrick came home with his gun, his mother Lori was not happy. She had seen the way her son had been declining over the years. How withdrawn he was. And in her mind, he did not need to own a firearm. She was so concerned, she actually called the Allen Police Department. Lori told them that her son was mentally ill, and that he should not own a gun. She even asked the officers to come by and take the firearm. But they pretty much told her that that wasn't going to happen. Since Patrick was a legal adult, he was allowed to own the gun.

• 21:27Courtney Brown?

  There was nothing they could do. They did tell her that if she was that concerned, she could always just kick Patrick out of the house. So, that's exactly what she did. From there, Patrick went to live with his grandparents again. But even they were concerned about him bringing a gun into their home. Apparently, his grandpa gave him an ultimatum. He said, quote, "I'm gonna give you three choices, Patrick. I will buy the rifle from you, you will send the rifle back, or you will turn it over to the police department. But if you're going to keep the rifle, you are not going to stay here." End quote. And once again, Patrick was not willing to give it up.

• 22:08Courtney Brown?

  After all, that gun was essential in the attack he was planning. So from there, he moved out and went to live with his father. Now unlike his mom and grandparents, his dad Brian actually liked the idea of Patrick owning a gun. In fact, he thought it would be a, quote, "good bonding experience" for the two of them. Clearly, despite his father being a licensed counselor, he didn't see the warning signs in his son. And even though his other family members were concerned, no one realized just how radicalized he had become. Yet on the surface, Patrick still didn't have a job or anything going for him.

• 22:50Courtney Brown?

  He continued spending hours online every day, reading through the vile content of H-Chan. And when he wasn't doing that, he was practicing his shot at the local gun range. On July 27th, his 21st birthday, Patrick wrote a letter to his family. In it, he wrote about the attack he had been planning, and how he was likely going to die while carrying it out. He asked his parents to forgive him for what he was about to do. In preparation for the mass shooting, Patrick also started getting rid of his personal possessions, donating items to Goodwill. By August of 2019, he was ready to commit the mass shooting.

• 23:32Courtney Brown?

  Now Patrick's goal was to kill as many immigrants as possible, but his hometown of Allen, Texas, didn't have a large immigrant population. So it's here where he came up with a plan to travel to El Paso, Texas. Not only is there a large Hispanic population, but given El Paso's location, right along the US-Mexico border, it also has a high immigrant population. So to him, it was the perfect place to carry out his attack. And just like the other mass shooters who inspired him, he decided to write a manifesto of his own, detailing all of the hatred he felt towards the Hispanic immigrants living in America. Now, I debated even reading from this manifesto at all

• 24:17Courtney Brown?

  because of how disgustingly hateful it is. And we already have enough of that in America right now. But I also think parts of it are important to read because it is a huge part of this story. And horrifically, there are many people in America who share these beliefs. So before we read any of it, I would just like to say that if you resonate with anything in this, please seek help. Anyways, here are parts of his manifesto titled, "An Inconvenient Truth."

• 24:47Colin Brown?

  This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigators, not me. I'm simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion. Some people will think this statement is hypocritical because of the nearly complete ethnic and cultural destruction brought to the Native Americans by our European ancestors. But this just reinforces my point. The natives didn't take the invasion of Europeans seriously, and now what's left is just a shadow of what was. My motives for this attack are not at all personal. Actually, the Hispanic community was not my target before I read The Great Replacement. He goes on to talk about how immigrants are taking American jobs and that because of this, "America is rotting from the inside out and peaceful means to stop this seem

• 25:32Colin Brown?

  to be nearly impossible." He also talks about how the amount of people here in America is ruining the environment. He says, "I just want to say that I love the people of this country, but goddamn, most of y'all are just too stubborn to change your lifestyle. So the next logical step is to decrease the number of people in America using resources. If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can become more sustainable."

• 25:57Courtney Brown?

  He also includes a portion where he talks about wanting to segregate all of the minorities into certain parts of the country and how he believes white people are going to be "ethnically replaced."

• 26:09Colin Brown?

  He also writes, "Statistically, millions of migrants have returned to their home countries to reunite with the family they lost contact with when they moved to America. They come here as economic immigrants, not for asylum reasons. This is an encouraging sign that the Hispanic population is willing to return to their home countries if given the right incentive, an incentive that myself and many other patriotic Americans will provide. I didn't spend much time at all preparing for this attack, maybe a month, probably less. I have to do this before I lose my never. I figured that an underprepared attack and a manifesto is better than no attack and no manifesto. If you take nothing else from this document, remember this: Inaction is a choice. I can no longer bear the shame

• 26:54Colin Brown?

  of inaction knowing that our founding fathers have endowed me with the rights needed to save our country from the brink of destruction. America can only be destroyed from the inside out. If our country falls, it will be the fault of traitors. This is why I see my actions as faultless. My death is likely inevitable. If I'm not killed by the police, then I'll probably be gunned down by one of the invaders. Capture in this case is far worse than dying during the shooting because I'll get the death penalty anyway. Worse still is that I would live knowing that my family despises me. This is why I'm not going to surrender even if I run out of ammo. If I'm captured, it will be because I was subdued somehow." It is not cowardly to pick low hanging fruit.

• 27:36Colin Brown?

  AKA, don't attack heavily guarded areas to fulfill your super soldier cod fantasy. Attack low security targets. Even though you might outgun a security guard or policeman, they likely beat you in armor, training, and numbers. Do not throw away your life on an unnecessarily dangerous target. If a target seems too hot, live to fight another day. My opinions on automation, immigration, and the rest predate Trump and his campaign for president. I am putting this here because some people will blame the president or certain presidential candidates for the attack. This is not the case. I know that the media will probably call me a white supremacist anyway and blame Trump's rhetoric. The media is infamous for fake news.

• 28:18Colin Brown?

  Their reaction to this attack will likely just confirm that. Many people think that the fight for America is already lost. They couldn't be more wrong. This is just the beginning of the fight for America and Europe. I am honored to head the fight to reclaim my country from destruction.

• 28:36Courtney Brown?

  It was a cloudy Friday evening in Allen, Texas on August 2, 2019. That night, Patrick spent hours browsing through the H Chan message boards. He also made the final edits to his manifesto. Then around midnight, after having some trouble falling asleep, he decided to go ahead and get a head start on the attack. In the trunk of his car, he loaded up a semi-automatic rifle, 1,000 rounds of hollow point bullets, earmuffs, gloves, and protective eye goggles. Then from there, he got in his dark gray 2012 Honda Civic and drove southwest on Interstate 20. He was headed straight to El Paso, Texas.

• 29:20Colin Brown?

  He had a long nine-hour drive ahead of him. The entire way, he went over the details of the attack in his head. On the passenger seat rested his laptop, equipped with the hate-filled racist manifesto. During the drive, he stopped twice for gas and energy drinks, the last stop being in Van Horn, roughly 115 miles from El Paso. On the way into town, the sun rose over the rugged Franklin Mountains. It was a beautiful morning, a stark contrast to the horrible day that was ahead. By 8 a.m., Patrick had finally arrived in town, seeing all of El Paso's historic and modern architecture, the small businesses, the beautiful murals, the food trucks and street vendors. All the things that make El Paso so great.

• 30:04Colin Brown?

  However, as we know, Patrick didn't see it that way. All he could think about was how excited he was to carry out an attack on the people who lived there. But first, he stopped for a bite to eat. Video footage showed his car pull into a CC's Pizza. Later on, investigators theorized that he may have originally planned to carry out the attack there. However, after realizing it was closed, he left and headed to another popular store: Walmart.

• 30:32Courtney Brown?

  Around 9 a.m., Patrick pulled his car into the Walmart parking lot. He then got out and casually made his way inside the store, where close to 100 people were going about their morning. No one seemed to take a second glance at the young man wearing khaki cargo pants and a black t-shirt. Patrick was pretty unremarkable. He's not really someone you're turning your head to look at. But if you did look at him that morning, you'd think he was your average customer. Video surveillance shows him walking through the aisles, glancing around. If you didn't know better, you'd think he was looking for a product of sorts. But as we know, he wasn't there to buy anything. Instead, he was scoping out the area,

• 31:18Courtney Brown?

  checking for the different exits, and seeing how many potential victims were inside. Eerily enough, at one point, an elderly woman even walked up to him and started talking. Now, from what I could find, this woman has never come forward, so we don't know exactly what she asked him. But from the video footage, you can see her walk up and ask him a question. Patrick leans in to hear what she says, then shrugs his shoulders and looks down at his cellphone. But the woman keeps talking. She's seen motioning with her hands. And from there, Patrick follows her down an aisle. It looks as if she was asking him for help getting a product off the shelves,

• 32:02Courtney Brown?

  but the cameras don't actually capture whether or not he helped her. But he ended up being inside the store for thirty whole minutes. And it's around this time when a group of young girls aged nine through eleven start setting up some tables outside of the Walmart. They were from a local soccer team called the El Paso Fusion, and they were there that morning to fundraise for their first out-of-state tournament. As the girls set up their drinks and snacks, Patrick walks out of the Walmart and heads back to his car. He's only out there for a few minutes before he decides to walk back inside. Yet again, he's not holding his gun. This time around, he walks over to the produce section and grabs a bag of oranges.

• 32:48Courtney Brown?

  He pays for them at the counter and then walks to the grocery cart area near the front entrance. Video footage shows him just lingering there, eating one of the oranges, while dozens of shoppers walk past him.

• 33:02Colin Brown?

  From here, he heads back to his vehicle again, but he still wasn't ready to carry out the attack. He would actually sit in his car for nearly an hour. Maybe he was waiting on more people to fill the store, maybe he was nervous. But after sitting there for an hour, he pulls out his laptop. At ten fifteen AM, he opens up 8chan. He typed in a new thread titled "It's Time and Hello FBI." He then uploaded a PDF file from his community college regarding his misconduct for showing up to class intoxicated. Realizing his mistake, at ten seventeen AM, he uploaded the correct PDF file and added "Fml nervous as hell."

• 33:42Colin Brown?

  The new PDF file was an attachment to his manifesto he titled "An Inconvenient Truth." Under it, he wrote a short message saying if he continued to think too much about what he was about to do, he might not go through with it. And he uploaded his manifesto. Immediately, comments started pouring in. One user wrote, "Eat shit and die, you glow N-word F-word. Pole is a board of peace and does not support violence." Another wrote, "Every Shabbat." Then Patrick commented saying, "Anytime you see articles like this, be sure to respond on social media with all the unreported shit skin mass shootings that are swept under the rug every day." Suddenly, more comments came in.

• 34:24Colin Brown?

  One person said, "Is nobody going to check these incredible digits?" Another wrote, "OP's been training for this his whole life." Another person said, "PDF here, I got it. It's a shitty manifesto, and this guy is probably an F-word, but still useful for prosperity."

• 34:42Courtney Brown?

  Patrick spent a few minutes going through the comments before ultimately shutting his laptop. From there, he got out of the car and walked to the trunk. While people made their way through the parking lot, Patrick put on his gloves, earmuffs, and goggles. He then grabbed his rifle, shut the trunk, and then started towards the Walmart. Within just a few short minutes, he would violently take the lives of 23 people, making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.

• 35:17Colin Brown?

  In part two, we're going to walk you through the El Paso Walmart shooting while doing our best to honor the victims and tell you as much as we know about their lives. If you're a Patreon member, part two is going to be posted almost immediately after part one goes live on all platforms. But if you're not with us on Patreon, we will see you next week. For today's episode, we will be making a donation to Operation Hope, H-O-P-E, an El Paso nonprofit that uses 100% of the funds to give back to the community and help people in times of need. Hey everybody, it's Colin here. Thank you for listening to today's episode. Next week's episode is gonna be a really hard one to get through, so

• 36:00Colin Brown?

  please, just in advance, listen to it at your own discretion. It's just such a tragic horrific story. Living in Texas, Courtney and I both remember when this happened. I mean, along with Uvalde, the Sutherland Springs shootings, Texas is a state where it seems almost like a breeding ground for horrific violence sometimes. And I've actually been to the El Paso Victims Memorial outside of this Walmart. I'm gonna talk about it next week. I was there a few years ago. It's an incredibly solemn, very solemn place. But if you enjoy what we do here on the show and you like the show that we produce, please consider joining us on Patreon.

• 36:42Colin Brown?

  You can get access on Patreon to all episodes of our show early and ad-free, so if you don't like the ads and you wanna listen early, join us over on Patreon. And also, some of the higher tiers get access to bonus content, so if you've never signed up for our Patreon, if you sign up today, you can get access to, I don't even know how many, over 120, 125 episodes of Murder in America that will never go live on the main feed. And for this episode, like we mentioned before, whenever we do two-part episodes, we always post part two on Patreon about a week early, so if you wanna listen to the rest of the series, feel free to, uh, yeah, join us on Patreon if you'd like to help support the show.

• 37:24Colin Brown?

  As always, please follow us on Instagram at Murder in America to see photos from every case that we cover here on the show. And please leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to the show. It's incredibly important. And we can't thank everybody enough who has left a review in the past. It's helped our show grow so much, so thank you. Thank you guys for listening this week. Um, we will be back next week. Courtney and I thank y'all so much, and we're so blessed and so grateful to have so many people out there listening. I'll see y'all on the next one.