29 people have been killed and dozens injured in two separate shootings
Police are treating the attack in Texas as "domestic terrorism"
They are looking at an anti-immigrant manifesto posted online just before the shooting
The sister of the gunman in Dayton was among nine people killed
He was shot dead by police within a minute of opening fire
Police in Ohio have just said they cannot yet answer the question - why?
You can follow further developments at bbc.com/news
Police in Ohio returned fire within 30 seconds
Dayton police are holding a press conference where they released surveillance footage from the scene of the mass shooting.
In one of the videos, Connor Betts is seen trying to get into a building moments after he opened fire on the street.
Police officers return fire within 30 seconds and the suspect is hit and falls to the ground.
People are also seen running for cover as panic ensued on the busy street.
'To start a war between our cultures is unacceptable'
From the BBC's Lauren Turner in El Paso:
Texas
senator John Cornyn visited the site at the back of the Walmart that has come
to serve as a makeshift memorial on Sunday lunchtime.
He
said: “To see somebody try to come from another place to try to start a war
between our cultures is simply unacceptable.
“We’re
not going to let him get away with it.”
He described El Paso as “a peaceful, wonderful example of our Texan culture” and said that it was “heartbreaking” that someone would want to divide the communities in this way.
Mr Cornyn added that the death penalty would be “appropriate” in this case.
Four dates that explain US gun debate
It's one of the most divisive issues in American society, once again brought to the fore because of a deadly mass shooting.
So what is the basis for the right to bear arms? And what key events have helped shape the debate?
It's become a familiar refrain after every mass shooting in the US. Will this time be different?
Among gun control activists, there is a certain amount of resignation whenever a new incident splashes across the headlines. If public sentiment did not force action after the 2012 Newtown shooting, when 26 people - including 20 young children - were killed in a Connecticut school, then nothing will ever change.
If the double tragedy of El Paso and Dayton ends up being different, however, here are a few possible explanations.
Investigators are calling the Texas attack "domestic terrorism" and a possible hate crime - that's got some on the right calling for action too
The tinderbox of the 2020 campaign is amplifying calls for gun control this time - and some Democratic presidential candidates are also blaming President Trump's rhetoric for violence
The US Congress is already halfway there after the House passed a bill to expand background checks earlier this year - could a reluctant Senate be pressured to take action?
The NRA has fallen on hard times - facing financial troubles and infighting, the gun rights lobby is still powerful but not quite the force it was
Having said all that, there are plenty of reasons why the usual political obstacles might mean this tragedy follows the familiar pattern.
El Paso suspect’s former college to help authorities
A college previously attended by El Paso shooting suspect Patrick
Crusius has said it will cooperate with authorities in their investigation.
Based in McKinney, Texas, Colin College, where the
21-year-old suspect studied from 2017 to 2019, said it was “saddened and horrified” by
the shooting.
Mr Crusius lived in Allen, Texas, about 650 miles (1,046km)
east of El Paso, where the shooting happened.
A mugshot of the El Paso shooting suspect has been released
by investigators.
Earlier today, El Paso's district attorney said the suspect,
21-year-old Patrick Crusius, has been charged with capital murder.
Prosecutors said they are considering bringing hate crime,
firearm and domestic terrorism charges against him.
Mr Crusius, of Allen, Texas, could face the death penalty for
his alleged crimes.
A violation upon a safe, friendly place
From the BBC's Lauren Turner in El Paso:
“Yesterday
I was in shock. Today, my heart is hurting.”
Gilda
Baeza Ortega is looking out at the Walmart in disbelief from across the car
park.
“There
are 19 bodies still in there,” she says, barely comprehending the fact. “I feel
like I’m connected to those people, and their families.”
She
had been on the way to the store yesterday morning then decided to go for
breakfast with her parents instead.
But
it’s not just that that makes her feel so close to what’s happened.
“It’s
the fact he was targeting us. I’m a Mexican American and very proud of that. To
me that is the biggest wound,” she says.
People
have been coming here all day to lay flowers, a cross, even a Rubik’s cube, in
tribute.
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Some people are also asking police when they can retrieve their cars from Walmart’s car park, where vehicles with Mexican number plates sit alongside those with American plates. One officer told me it could be eight hours from now.
It’s a popular place for people to come shopping from Mexico and it means many now can’t make the return journey, their passports being locked in their vehicles.
Willa Melendez says with El Paso being so close to the Mexican border, “it doesn’t feel like we’re two countries - we go back and forth”.
She adds “we’re a city of diversity - so this hurts”.
Everyone talks of what a friendly place it is, how everyone knows each other. A taxi driver talks of the “six degrees of separation” here. She's dreading the list of names coming out, worried she knows one of the victims.
Everyone talks of how safe El Paso is too.
They can’t quite believe that this has been visited on them - on what should have been just another ordinary Saturday morning at the supermarket.
Dayton police have named the nine victims of the mass shooting in the city in the early hours of Sunday morning. Six were African American and three were white, they were a variety of ages and included both men and women.
The gunman's sister Megan Betts, 22, was among those killed.
Back in 2012, the National Rifle Association was near the
height of its power and influence in US politics. Through decades of
campaigning, the group - which represents millions of gun owners as well as gun
manufacturers - had turned gun rights for many Americans into a
red-white-and-blue bedecked symbol of God and country.
Many Democrats viewed firearm regulation as ballot-box
poison, blaming the issue for, among other defeats, Al Gore’s narrow
presidential loss in 2000. A candidate with a negative rating from the NRA
practically ensured a well-funded opponent and grass-roots opposition in many
parts of the US.
Recently, however, the NRA has fallen on hard times. The
organisation’s revenue dropped by $56m in 2017, due to lower membership dues
and contributions.
It’s been beset by an internal power struggle that has spilled
into the civil courts and targeted by criminal corruption probes in New York
and Washington, DC.
Even the NRA’s sheen of electoral invulnerability has begun
to dull. In the 2018 mid-term elections it was outspent by gun-control groups
aided by contributions from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Several
prominent gun-control advocates, such as Lucy McBath in Georgia, won in
battleground districts.
This is not the same NRA that was able to aggressively push
back against background-check legislation even in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012.
It still has plenty of political muscle, of course, but cracks in the
foundation are visible.
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Mother-of-three ‘gave her life’ to baby son
A young mother-of-three was killed in yesterday’s mass shooting in
Texas while apparently shielding her baby son, her sister has said.
Jordan Anchondo, 24, was one of the 20 people who were shot
dead at a Walmart in El Paso.
Her sister Leta Jamrowski, 19, said Ms Anchondo was shopping
for back-to-school supplies when the gunman, named as Patrick Crusius, opened
fire.
As the shooting rampage unfolded, she fell on her
two-month-old son in an apparent attempt to save his life, Ms Jamrowski said.
She told the Associated Press that her sister appears to
have given “her life” for her son, who survived the shooting with broken bones.
Ms Anchondo's son was receiving treatment at the University Medical Center of El Paso.
'8chan is a haven for domestic terrorists'
In a detailed analysis on bellingcat.com, Robert Evans, a journalist who studies radicalism on the internet, notes that the original 8chan thread was
deleted almost immediately by site moderators. But he says he found comments celebrating the high body count and comparing it to the attacks on two mosques in New Zealand.
He concludes:
The El Paso shooter’s manifesto and
8chan post show his radicalization and turn towards white supremacism,
the Christchurch shooter’s manifesto, and the video of his massacre,
likely acting as major influences in his eventual attack. The most
important takeaways from the El Paso shooting are twofold:
8chan’s /pol board continues to deliberately radicalize mass shooters.
The act of massacring innocents has been gamified.
"The El Paso shooting fits a growing and disturbing trend of far right violence internationally. Like the attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March, the suspected attacker fits a particular profile - an individual who may have acted alone but who inhabited an international online subculture of extremism, one in which others incite and encourage violent acts.
"A manifesto - which authorities have linked to the attacker - was posted online and was characteristic in its claims about population replacement (in New Zealand it was Muslims, in El Paso, Hispanics). And again, as in Christchurch, just before he acted the individual allegedly posted his intentions on the online free speech forum 8Chan. The pressure may grow now to act against such platforms and also for the authorities to take this growing threat more seriously, especially in the US."
BreakingDayton gunman's sister among the dead
Police in Ohio confirm that the sister of Connor Betts, the 24-year-old local man identified as the suspected gunman, is among the nine people killed.
Flags half-mast at White House and all public buildings
A new statement from President Trump says:
"Our nation mourns with those whose loved ones were murdered in the
tragic shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, and we share in the pain
and suffering of all those who were injured in these two senseless attacks. We condemn these hateful and cowardly acts. Through our grief,
America stands united with the people of El Paso and Dayton. May God be
with the victims of these two horrific crimes and bring aid and comfort to
their families and friends.
"As a mark of solemn respect for the victims of the terrible acts of
violence... I hereby order that the flag of the
United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and
upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval
stations, and on all naval vessels... until sunset, August 8, 2019.
"I also direct that the
flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all
United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities
abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.".
The FBI boss recently testified that the agency has made roughly the same number of "domestic terrorism" arrests this year as it has for international, homegrown terrorism.
Commentators have debated how strongly domestic terror - often driven by white nationalism or white supremacy - has been addressed.
Live Reporting
Tom Geoghegan, Ben Bevington and Joshua Nevett
All times stated are UK
-
29 people have been killed and dozens injured in two separate shootings
-
Police are treating the attack in Texas as "domestic terrorism"
-
They are looking at an anti-immigrant manifesto posted online just before the shooting
-
The sister of the gunman in Dayton was among nine people killed
-
He was shot dead by police within a minute of opening fire
-
Police in Ohio have just said they cannot yet answer the question - why?
-
Investigators are calling the Texas attack "domestic terrorism" and a possible hate crime - that's got some on the right calling for action too
-
The tinderbox of the 2020 campaign is amplifying calls for gun control this time - and some Democratic presidential candidates are also blaming President Trump's rhetoric for violence
-
The US Congress is already halfway there after the House passed a bill to expand background checks earlier this year - could a reluctant Senate be pressured to take action?
-
The NRA has fallen on hard times - facing financial troubles and infighting, the gun rights lobby is still powerful but not quite the force it was
View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images - 8chan’s /pol board continues to deliberately radicalize mass shooters.
- The act of massacring innocents has been gamified.
View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter
Latest PostGoodbye from us
The live page is ending now. To sum up:
You can follow further developments at bbc.com/news
Police in Ohio returned fire within 30 seconds
Dayton police are holding a press conference where they released surveillance footage from the scene of the mass shooting.
In one of the videos, Connor Betts is seen trying to get into a building moments after he opened fire on the street.
Police officers return fire within 30 seconds and the suspect is hit and falls to the ground.
People are also seen running for cover as panic ensued on the busy street.
'To start a war between our cultures is unacceptable'
From the BBC's Lauren Turner in El Paso:
Texas senator John Cornyn visited the site at the back of the Walmart that has come to serve as a makeshift memorial on Sunday lunchtime.
He said: “To see somebody try to come from another place to try to start a war between our cultures is simply unacceptable.
“We’re not going to let him get away with it.”
He described El Paso as “a peaceful, wonderful example of our Texan culture” and said that it was “heartbreaking” that someone would want to divide the communities in this way.
Mr Cornyn added that the death penalty would be “appropriate” in this case.
Four dates that explain US gun debate
It's one of the most divisive issues in American society, once again brought to the fore because of a deadly mass shooting.
So what is the basis for the right to bear arms? And what key events have helped shape the debate?
Read the full piece
Will anything change this time?
Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter
It's become a familiar refrain after every mass shooting in the US. Will this time be different?
Among gun control activists, there is a certain amount of resignation whenever a new incident splashes across the headlines. If public sentiment did not force action after the 2012 Newtown shooting, when 26 people - including 20 young children - were killed in a Connecticut school, then nothing will ever change.
If the double tragedy of El Paso and Dayton ends up being different, however, here are a few possible explanations.
Having said all that, there are plenty of reasons why the usual political obstacles might mean this tragedy follows the familiar pattern.
Read Anthony's full blog
Mexico will take ‘legal action’, foreign minister says
Mexico will take legal action to protect its citizens in the United States, the country’s foreign minister has said.
In a video statement, Marcelo Ebrard condemned the El Paso shooting as an “act of barbarity”.
The shooting, in which three Mexicans were among 20 killed, is being treated as a “domestic terrorism case”, investigators said.
Mr Edrard said the Mexican government will take “forceful legal actions” to keep its citizens safe in the US, without explaining specifics.
The first legal actions, he said, would be announced on Sunday afternoon.
El Paso suspect’s former college to help authorities
A college previously attended by El Paso shooting suspect Patrick Crusius has said it will cooperate with authorities in their investigation.
Based in McKinney, Texas, Colin College, where the 21-year-old suspect studied from 2017 to 2019, said it was “saddened and horrified” by the shooting.
Mr Crusius lived in Allen, Texas, about 650 miles (1,046km) east of El Paso, where the shooting happened.
Two cities united in grief - in pictures
BreakingEl Paso suspect’s mugshot released
A mugshot of the El Paso shooting suspect has been released by investigators.
Earlier today, El Paso's district attorney said the suspect, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, has been charged with capital murder.
Prosecutors said they are considering bringing hate crime, firearm and domestic terrorism charges against him.
Mr Crusius, of Allen, Texas, could face the death penalty for his alleged crimes.
A violation upon a safe, friendly place
From the BBC's Lauren Turner in El Paso:
“Yesterday I was in shock. Today, my heart is hurting.”
Gilda Baeza Ortega is looking out at the Walmart in disbelief from across the car park.
“There are 19 bodies still in there,” she says, barely comprehending the fact. “I feel like I’m connected to those people, and their families.”
She had been on the way to the store yesterday morning then decided to go for breakfast with her parents instead.
But it’s not just that that makes her feel so close to what’s happened.
“It’s the fact he was targeting us. I’m a Mexican American and very proud of that. To me that is the biggest wound,” she says.
People have been coming here all day to lay flowers, a cross, even a Rubik’s cube, in tribute.
Some people are also asking police when they can retrieve their cars from Walmart’s car park, where vehicles with Mexican number plates sit alongside those with American plates. One officer told me it could be eight hours from now.
It’s a popular place for people to come shopping from Mexico and it means many now can’t make the return journey, their passports being locked in their vehicles.
Willa Melendez says with El Paso being so close to the Mexican border, “it doesn’t feel like we’re two countries - we go back and forth”.
She adds “we’re a city of diversity - so this hurts”.
Everyone talks of what a friendly place it is, how everyone knows each other. A taxi driver talks of the “six degrees of separation” here. She's dreading the list of names coming out, worried she knows one of the victims.
Everyone talks of how safe El Paso is too.
They can’t quite believe that this has been visited on them - on what should have been just another ordinary Saturday morning at the supermarket.
Ivanka Trump condemns 'evil' white supremacy
Police name nine victims in Dayton shooting
Dayton police have named the nine victims of the mass shooting in the city in the early hours of Sunday morning. Six were African American and three were white, they were a variety of ages and included both men and women.
The gunman's sister Megan Betts, 22, was among those killed.
NRA is weaker now
Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter
Back in 2012, the National Rifle Association was near the height of its power and influence in US politics. Through decades of campaigning, the group - which represents millions of gun owners as well as gun manufacturers - had turned gun rights for many Americans into a red-white-and-blue bedecked symbol of God and country.
Many Democrats viewed firearm regulation as ballot-box poison, blaming the issue for, among other defeats, Al Gore’s narrow presidential loss in 2000. A candidate with a negative rating from the NRA practically ensured a well-funded opponent and grass-roots opposition in many parts of the US.
Recently, however, the NRA has fallen on hard times. The organisation’s revenue dropped by $56m in 2017, due to lower membership dues and contributions.
It’s been beset by an internal power struggle that has spilled into the civil courts and targeted by criminal corruption probes in New York and Washington, DC.
Even the NRA’s sheen of electoral invulnerability has begun to dull. In the 2018 mid-term elections it was outspent by gun-control groups aided by contributions from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Several prominent gun-control advocates, such as Lucy McBath in Georgia, won in battleground districts.
This is not the same NRA that was able to aggressively push back against background-check legislation even in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012.
It still has plenty of political muscle, of course, but cracks in the foundation are visible.
Mother-of-three ‘gave her life’ to baby son
A young mother-of-three was killed in yesterday’s mass shooting in Texas while apparently shielding her baby son, her sister has said.
Jordan Anchondo, 24, was one of the 20 people who were shot dead at a Walmart in El Paso.
Her sister Leta Jamrowski, 19, said Ms Anchondo was shopping for back-to-school supplies when the gunman, named as Patrick Crusius, opened fire.
As the shooting rampage unfolded, she fell on her two-month-old son in an apparent attempt to save his life, Ms Jamrowski said.
She told the Associated Press that her sister appears to have given “her life” for her son, who survived the shooting with broken bones.
Ms Anchondo's son was receiving treatment at the University Medical Center of El Paso.
'8chan is a haven for domestic terrorists'
In a detailed analysis on bellingcat.com, Robert Evans, a journalist who studies radicalism on the internet, notes that the original 8chan thread was deleted almost immediately by site moderators. But he says he found comments celebrating the high body count and comparing it to the attacks on two mosques in New Zealand.
He concludes:
The El Paso shooter’s manifesto and 8chan post show his radicalization and turn towards white supremacism, the Christchurch shooter’s manifesto, and the video of his massacre, likely acting as major influences in his eventual attack. The most important takeaways from the El Paso shooting are twofold:
The role of 8chan message board
Gordon Corera
Security correspondent, BBC News
"The El Paso shooting fits a growing and disturbing trend of far right violence internationally. Like the attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March, the suspected attacker fits a particular profile - an individual who may have acted alone but who inhabited an international online subculture of extremism, one in which others incite and encourage violent acts.
"A manifesto - which authorities have linked to the attacker - was posted online and was characteristic in its claims about population replacement (in New Zealand it was Muslims, in El Paso, Hispanics). And again, as in Christchurch, just before he acted the individual allegedly posted his intentions on the online free speech forum 8Chan. The pressure may grow now to act against such platforms and also for the authorities to take this growing threat more seriously, especially in the US."
BreakingDayton gunman's sister among the dead
Police in Ohio confirm that the sister of Connor Betts, the 24-year-old local man identified as the suspected gunman, is among the nine people killed.
Flags half-mast at White House and all public buildings
A new statement from President Trump says:
"Our nation mourns with those whose loved ones were murdered in the tragic shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, and we share in the pain and suffering of all those who were injured in these two senseless attacks. We condemn these hateful and cowardly acts. Through our grief, America stands united with the people of El Paso and Dayton. May God be with the victims of these two horrific crimes and bring aid and comfort to their families and friends.
"As a mark of solemn respect for the victims of the terrible acts of violence... I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels... until sunset, August 8, 2019.
"I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.".
'Life goes on' - BBC at scene in El Paso
El Paso sparks 'white terrorism' debate
The FBI boss recently testified that the agency has made roughly the same number of "domestic terrorism" arrests this year as it has for international, homegrown terrorism.
Commentators have debated how strongly domestic terror - often driven by white nationalism or white supremacy - has been addressed.