By Cedar Attanasio, Paul J. Weber and Morgan Lee
Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas — Two more victims of the mass shooting at a crowded Walmart in El Paso, Texas, over the weekend died at a hospital on Monday, raising the death toll for the attack to 22.
Dr. Stephen Flaherty said at a news conference that gunshot wounds of the patients treated at the Del Sol Medical Center have been “devastating and major.”
He said one patient who died at the hospital had major internal abdominal injuries affecting the liver, kidneys and intestines. That patient also received a “massive blood transfusion,” Flaherty said.
The hospital didn’t release the names or ages of the two patients who died Monday, but hospital officials described one as an elderly woman.
Another patient remained in critical condition at the hospital and five others were in stable condition, two days after the Saturday attack in which more than two dozen people were wounded. Victims were also treated at other El Paso hospitals.
Police still haven’t released a list of the victims of the attack, which happened hours before a separate mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, that claimed nine lives.
Speaking at the White House on Monday, President Donald Trump condemned the two attacks in which 31 people were killed and dozens of others were wounded. He called for bipartisan cooperation to respond to an epidemic of gun violence, but he offered scant details on concrete steps that could be taken.
“We vow to act with urgent resolve,” Trump said.
Federal authorities said they are weighing hate-crime charges against the suspected gunman El Paso that could carry the death penalty. The suspect, 21-year old Patrick Crusius, has been booked on state capital murder charges, which also carry a possible death penalty.
The shootings in Texas and Ohio were the 21st and 22nd mass killings of 2019 in the U.S., according to the AP/USA Today/Northeastern University mass murder database that tracks homicides where four or more people killed — not including the offender.
Including the two latest attacks, 126 people had been killed in the 2019 mass shootings.
Since 2006, 11 mass shootings — not including Saturday’s — have been committed by men who are 21 or younger.