A Pair Of Mass Shootings

WAMU 88.5

Published August 5, 2019 at 11:05 AM EDT

People gather for a vigil for the victims of the mass shooting that occurred overnight in Dayton, Ohio. In the second mass shooting in the U.S. within 24 hours a gunman left nine dead and another 27 wounded after only a minute of shooting.

A terrifying weekend in America: at least 29 people are dead and dozens injured after two mass shootings — one in El Paso, Texas, and the other in Dayton, Ohio.

State officials in Texas said they planned to pursue the death penalty for the gunman in the El Paso shooting.

From NPR:

In a news conference in El Paso, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, John Bash, said the investigation into the deadly attack is proceeding with a “view towards bringing federal hate crime charges.”

Bash said his office is treating the shooting as a domestic terrorism case, which would make charges eligible for the death penalty. He said the district attorney’s office has already filed papers warning the suspect he faces capital murder charges.

“We are treating it as a domestic terrorism case and we’re going to do what we do to terrorists in this country, which is deliver swift and certain justice,” Bash said at a press conference.

Just before the El Paso shooting began, a statement possibly written by the suspect was posted online. It was filled with anti-immigrant and white nationalist ideology.

More information is also emerging in the Dayton shooting, which left nine people dead and more than two dozen injured.

At a press conference, Mayor Nan Whaley talked about the role of police in the shooting.

“I really want to — think about that minute. The shooter was able to kill nine people and injure 26 in less than a minute. And if we did not have police in the Oregon District and the thousands of people in the Oregon District enjoying their Saturday evening, what we could have had in this city,” she said.

“The question has to be raised, why does Dayton have to be the 250th mass shooting this year?”

We hear from you about what you’re thinking and feeling after a deadly week in America.

Follow along with live updates from Ohio and Texas here and here. You can also tune in to your NPR member station for the latest updates.

GUESTS

Jonathan Metzl, Professor, Sociology and Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University; author, “Dying of Whiteness”; @JonathanMetzl

Michael German, Fellow, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law; former FBI agent

Charlie Warzel, Writer-at-large, New York Times Opinion; former senior technology writer, BuzzFeed News; @cwarzel

For more, visit https://the1a.org.