The endless cycle of mass shooting resulting in the deaths of innocent bystanders continues. One wonders how this can ever be stopped. A gunman armed with a rifle killed 20 people at a Walmart store in El Paso on Saturday and wounded more than two dozen before he was arrested. The latest mass shooting has again brought into focus the easy availability of rifles and guns. The mass shootings created panic among the shopper who fled the scene. This shooting comes close on the heels of a teenage gunman who fired and killed three persons at a food festival in Northern California.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called it one of the deadliest attacks in the history of Texas. The New York Times has reported that the suspect carried an AK-47 type automatic rifle.
The magnitude of the killing calls for introspection in America by both the government and the people. If figures have a meaning it was the eighth-worst mass shooting in modern US history. The chronology is from the 1984 shooting in San Ysidro that resulted in 21 being shot dead. The suspect has been identified as a 21-year-old white male from Allen, Texas a small place but part of Dallas city some 650 miles (1046 km) east of El Paso. The suspect drove from afar to El Paso and his motive is not yet clear as he is being interrogated by the authorities.
The suspect-young white man
The suspect has reportedly posted disturbing reports on social media. The Texas Attorney General has said that he was not surprised by this news in any way. The police reached the scene of the crime almost immediately and took the suspect into custody. El Paso police Sergeant Robert Gomez said the suspect was taken into custody without the use of force.
Taking the suspect into custody is small consolation to the 32 victims of the mass shooting and points to a dangerous deterioration in law and order situation in the USA. Time magazine has reported that the possibility of a"hate crime" cannot be ruled out.
Photos of the suspect were taken by security cameras installed in the store.
These photos show a young white man wearing glasses, khaki trousers, and a dark T-shirt, and carrying an assault-style gun. The suspect was probably wearing headphones or ear defenders and one can conclude that it was a premeditated killing. Politicians have made the usual comments after the killings. The US President Donald Trump who recently offered to mediate on Kashmir posted on Twitter that the reports from El Paso were "very bad, many killed." He went on to tweet that he was shocked by the numbers killed. This, however, doesn't lead anywhere.
World shocked
The killings have shocked America and the world. There was an overwhelming response to an appeal by the police department for blood donations to help the wounded.
Many of the donors were requested to come back by the hospital authorities on Sunday. Graphic video of the scene of the crime have emerged and are posted on social media sites. The response by the authorities was quick and state troopers and police reached the scene but by then 20 people had been killed. There is a need by the president and Congress to think of some radical measures to stop such mass carnage. They happen nowhere else in the developed world or the East in India and China. This is one episode the Americans won't be too proud of.
