The FBI is warning the weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, may inspire copycats, as at least one threat made in the aftermath of the two massacres credited the attacks.
The FBI said late Sunday that violent domestic extremists “could become inspired by these and previous high-profile attacks.”
The FBI asked the American public to keep its eyes open for any suspicious activity “either in person or online” and the Washington Examiner has learned that the FBI set-up a 24/7 command center at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., to assist with the ongoing investigations.
Florida resident Wayne Lee Padgett was arrested Sunday after he allegedly called a Walmart near Tampa and told an employee that he was minutes away from the store and planned to shoot it up, a day after the El Paso shooter targeted a Walmart, killing 21.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said that Padgett “was intrigued with the shootings over the last couple of days” and, though no weapons were found in Padgett’s car or home, he will be charged with making a felonious threatening call.
President Trump said on Monday that he’d spoken with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General William Barr. “Federal authorities are on the ground and I have directed them to provide any and all assistance required — whatever is needed,” Trump said.
The two shootings come a week after Santino William Legan killed three people and injured 13 more in a shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California. John Bennett, the FBI special agent in charge of that investigation, said last week that despite social media postings related to white supremacist literature and other possible extremist views, “we’re still not comfortable in saying it’s an ideology, one way or another.”
Patrick Crusius, the alleged El Paso shooter, posted a racist white nationalist manifesto on internet forum 8chan shortly before his attack was charged with capital murder and could face the death penalty. The U.S. attorney said that they were treating the attack as an act of domestic terrorism, that federal hate crimes charges and federal gun charges were being considered, and that the federal government may seek the death penalty as well.
The FBI said late Sunday “the attack in El Paso, Texas, underscores the continued threat posed by domestic violent extremists and perpetrators of hate crimes.” The FBI is assisting the El Paso Police Department and other state and local investigators, having examined the scene in El Paso, and is helping local victims, family members, and witnesses.
Emmerson Buie, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s El Paso Division, said the FBI initiated its Domestic Terrorism-Hate Crimes Fusion Cell, which is comprised of agents and intelligence analysts from headquarters, the local field office, and elsewhere in the United States, and coordinates and shares information and resources. Buie said the fusion cell would bring investigative and counter-terrorism expertise to the investigation.
Buie also revealed the FBI executed three search warrants in Dallas, where the shooter lived.
Connor Betts, who killed nine people early Sunday in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio’s popular late-night Oregon District, was killed by police less than a minute into his attack. Although social media accounts attributed to him are being heavily scrutinized, his motive is not yet known.
FBI Director Wray, who said he was in close contact with and had support from Trump and Barr, said the FBI had responded to these attacks immediately and would “bring the full resources of the FBI to bear in the pursuit of justice for the victims of these crimes.”
Wray has repeatedly warned about white supremacist violence, telling Congress earlier this year that the danger posed by it is “significant” and that the FBI assesses that it is a “persistent, pervasive threat.”
The FBI also pushed back against a Sunday CNN report that said Wray had ordered a nationwide assessment by all of the FBI’s 56 field offices to detect any similar threats. An FBI spokesperson told the Washington Examiner “that information is inaccurate.”
“I am directing the Department of Justice to work in partnership with local, state, and federal agencies, as well as social media companies to develop tools that can detect mass shooters before they strike,” Trump said today.
