el paso police

Two Mass Shootings in El Paso and Dayton Claim Over 30 Lives In Less Than 24 Hours

Communities are calling for legislative action, particularly after it was revealed that one shooting was motivated by white supremacist ideology.

Less than a week after three people were shot dead at a food festival in California, mass shootings took the lives of 31 people and injured several dozen more in two American cities, El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.

The violence began on Saturday morning at an El Paso Walmart packed with back-to-school shoppers. The 21-year-old suspect, who lived in the Dallas suburb of Allen, made the 10-hour drive to the border city with the intentions of carrying out a domestic terrorist attack, according to a white supremacist memo posted online that has been attributed to him.

Within minutes, the suspect was able to shoot dozens, including two young parents shopping with their two-month-old child, killing 22 people that included several Mexican citizens.

Jaime Esparza, the El Paso County district attorney, said at a press conference on Sunday that his office would seek the death penalty, The Dallas Morning News reported.

“The loss of life is so great,” Esparza said. “We have certainly never seen this in our community. We pride ourselves on the fact that we’re so safe. Certainly, this community is rocked and shocked and saddened by what has happened here.”

In the manifesto, the suspect wrote of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and documented his fears that white people would be replaced by Latinos as part of a plot that would allow Democrats to win Texas and other states currently represented by Republicans, The New York Times reported. He also drew direct inspiration from the shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand, who claimed the lives of 51 people after he targeted a mosque during Friday prayer.

“What happened today is beyond comprehension,” El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles wrote in a statement on social media on Saturday. “This Anglo man came here to kill Hispanics. I'm outraged and you should be too. This entire nation should be outraged. In this day and age, with all the serious issues we face, we are still confronted with people who will kill another for the sole reason of the color of their skin.”

Less than 24 hours later, another community was torn apart by a mass shooting, this time at the Ned Peppers bar in an entertainment district in Dayton, Ohio. The shooter took nine lives in less than a minute of gunfire, including the life of his own sister, before he was killed by police who arrived on the scene within seconds.

The shooter’s motives are still unknown, The Washington Post reported. Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said his department is still working to answer the question of “Why?”

“Had this individual made it through the doorway of Ned Peppers with that level of weaponry, there would have been catastrophic injury and loss of life,” Biehl said at a news conference. “So stopping him before he could get inside there—where you saw people were running in there for protection—was essential to minimizing to the degree we could casualties and deaths from this incident.”

The shootings elicited outpourings of grief and anger from Americans, including chants of “Do something!” from Ohioans gathered at a vigil for the Dayton victims on Sunday. Politicians called for legislative action to limit access to assault weapons and other measures to prevent more mass shootings, which have become a routine aspect of American life in recent years.

“We can have some common sense gun laws on the books,” Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said in an interview with PBS NewsHour. “I'd like the nine people who were fatally wounded and the 26 people that were shot in Oregon district so senselessly not to have their families lives changed for them to be gone, and for life to be different here in Dayton, Ohio because of this senseless act of violence.”

On Monday, President Donald Trump made a public statement condemning the motives of the El Paso shooter and calling for bipartisan action to strengthen background checks and pass “red-flag laws” that would help law enforcement identify mentally ill people who should not be able to legally purchase firearms.

“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” Trump said in his televised remarks. “We must shine light on the dark recesses of the internet and stop mass murders before they start.”

He added: “Open wounds cannot heal if we are divided. We must seek real bipartisan solutions … that will truly make America safer and better for all.”

Democrats are urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) to allow a vote on a background check bill passed by the House of Representatives, but most legislators believe that little to no action will be taken in Congress to address the issue.

Some companies are taking action to address hateful content posted to the online forum 8chan, where the El Paso shooter found his inspiration to carry out an attack and posted his hateful memo. The web company Cloudfare dropped the site from its client list on Sunday, taking the platform offline overnight, but the outage is likely to be temporary.

Featured

  • Survey Shows Election Anxiety Crosses Party Lines

    New reports of election worker intimidation are raising concerns about election interference. A majority of Americans (71%) are worried about voter intimidation or safety at the polls, and 75% want security cameras at their voting place, according to a new national survey. Read Now

  • 66 Percent of Cybersecurity Pros Say Job Stress is Growing

    Sixty-six percent of cybersecurity professionals say their role is more stressful now than it was five years ago, according to the newly released 2024 State of Cybersecurity survey report from ISACA, a global professional association advancing trust in technology. Read Now

  • Live from GSX 2024: Post-Show Recap

    Another great edition of GSX is in the books! We’d like to thank our great partners for this years event, NAPCO, LVT, Eagle Eye Networks and Hirsch, for working with us and allowing us to highlight some of the great solutions the companies were showcasing during the crowded show. Read Now

    • Industry Events
    • GSX
  • Research: Cybersecurity Success Hinges on Full Organizational Support

    Cybersecurity is the top technology priority for the vast majority of organizations, but moving from aspiration to reality requires a top-to-bottom commitment that many companies have yet to make, according to new research released today by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the technology industry and workforce. Read Now

Featured Cybersecurity

Webinars

New Products

  • FEP GameChanger

    FEP GameChanger

    Paige Datacom Solutions Introduces Important and Innovative Cabling Products GameChanger Cable, a proven and patented solution that significantly exceeds the reach of traditional category cable will now have a FEP/FEP construction. 3

  • Automatic Systems V07

    Automatic Systems V07

    Automatic Systems, an industry-leading manufacturer of pedestrian and vehicle secure entrance control access systems, is pleased to announce the release of its groundbreaking V07 software. The V07 software update is designed specifically to address cybersecurity concerns and will ensure the integrity and confidentiality of Automatic Systems applications. With the new V07 software, updates will be delivered by means of an encrypted file. 3

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge. 3