US President Donald Trump will visit El Paso on Wednesday, the place where 22 people were killed in a mass shooting at a mall, the city's mayor Mayor Dee Margo said on Tuesday.
Margo said that he spoke to Trump briefly about the incident. "He was very gracious, offered to help in any way he could. It was a brief call," he was quoted by CNN as saying in a press conference.
"Our recovery is no small task. Together we will rise out of this tragedy. I'm here to ensure we receive every state and federal resource that's available to us that we need," the mayor said.
Later, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen informed that a total of 27 people were injured in the gruesome incident, including an infant who is suffering from broken bones.
On August 3, a gunman opened fire in a Walmart Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso. The suspect was later identified by police as Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white man.
Before arranging the shooting, Crusius published on Twitter a manifesto in which he supported the terrorist attack in a mosque in New Zealand's Christchurch in March. In the manifesto, he pledged to protect his country from a foreign "invasion," which he believed damaged US culture and economy.
Revealing more details about the investigation into the incident, Allen said that the suspect took around 10 to 11 hours to travel to El Paso.
"After arriving in El Paso, Crusius got lost in a neighbourhood, and he found the Walmart because he was hungry," he said, adding that the accused cooperated with the police and volunteered "most of the evidence."
Meanwhile, Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard met with the families of the victims' in El Paso.
Earlier on Monday, Trump said that the El Paso gunman was "consumed with racist hate" and asserted that "hate has no place" in his country.
"The shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto online consumed by racist hate. In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy," he said. "These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America," The Hill quoted him as saying.
The US President also called for tighter reforms, ranging from a background check on gun buyers to amendments in the immigration legislation, in the wake of the shooting incidents in El Paso and Ohio.
At least ten people were killed and 16 others sustained injuries after a gunman opened fire at a shopping centre in Dayton, Ohio, less than 24 hours after the shooting in El Paso.
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