EL PASO, Texas — The man accused in the 2019 mass shooting at Cielo Vista Walmart has had his federal court hearing postponed due to COVID.
His hearing was originally set for Tuesday, Aug. 3, via ZOOM, but has now been scheduled to Nov. 18 at 2 p.m.. The court is currently facing a heavy backlog of criminal jury trials due to the pandemic and needs that ZOOM video conference to be vacated.
According to court documents, the parties have requested a 90-day continuance for further investigation and defense preparation.
Both parties are required to file a status report every 30 days if there are any developments in the case until the scheduled hearing.
On Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019, a gunman opened fire inside that Walmart, killing 23 people and injuring dozens more.
The shooting has been described as the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern U.S. history and the FBI continues to investigate it as a hate crime.
Just before 10:40 a.m. that day, the gunman walked into a Walmart Supercenter armed with a semi-automatic civilian version of an AK-47. Prior to that, according to the store manager, the gunman began firing in the parking lot. A “Code Brown” was issued, indicating a shooter, and employees began helping customers to escape or hide.
Following the shooting, the suspect drove away from the store to a nearby location where he identified himself as the shooter and surrendered to the Texas Rangers.
Among those killed were 13 Americans, eight Mexicans and one German. One victim died the day after the shooting, another victim died two days after it, and a third victim died eight months later.
The suspect was charged with capital murder. Police believe he purchased the gun legally.
Investigators believe the suspect posted a manifesto prior to the shooting to the online message board 8chan. It claims inspiration from the mosque shootings in New Zealand that claimed 51 lives earlier in 2019. In addition, it is anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic and promotes a white nationalist conspiracy theory called the Great Replacement.