Documentary film about El Paso Walmart mass shooting opens this week in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – A documentary film about the mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso last year opens this week in San Antonio.   Twenty-three people were killed and 23 others were injured in the shooting Aug. 3, 2019.

“The killer told police afterwards that he was trying to hunt Mexicans and kill as many as possible,” director Charlie Minn says in the trailer for “915: Hunting Hispanics.”

Cynthia Loya witnessed the shooting and is featured in the film.

“You’re attacking my people, you’re attacking my city, you’re attacking my ethnicity,” Loya said.

Investigators claim that 22-year-old Patrick  Crusius drove nearly 600 miles  from the Dallas suburb of Allen to El Paso to target Hispanics.   They say that just before the shooting,  in an online rant, he railed against immigrants and referred to a “Hispanic Invasion of Texas.”  Crusius faces several charges, including capital murder and federal hate crimes resulting in death.

“This was a racist outsider who came into El Paso and did this,” Minn told MSNBC.

Minn chose not to mention the suspect’s name in the film, instead focusing on survivors, victims and their families.

“We’ve got to understand this was a hate crime toward Hispanics and specifically, Mexican people.  This is completely unacceptable,” said Minn.

“915: Hunting Hispanics” opens Friday at three  Santikos Theatres in San Antonio–the Palladium, the Mayan and Casa Blanca.