In act of forgiveness, woman hugs the El Paso Walmart mass shooter who killed her brother

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Yolanda Tinajero sat across the courtroom from the man who murdered her brother, Arturo Benavides, and 22 other people, hoping to help the mass killer understand more about her brother, her community, her culture.

“I feel in my heart to hug you very tight so you could feel my forgiveness, especially my loss. But I know it’s not allowed. I want you to see and feel all of us who have been impacted by your actions that has brought us all closer with God’s love, which shows you that this great city of El Paso is a very forgiving place to dwell in,” she told Patrick Crusius on Tuesday during her victim impact statement.

Crusius pleaded guilty on Monday to capital murder and aggravated assault charges for killing 23 people and wounding 22 others at an El Paso Walmart on Aug. 3, 2019. He had driven 600 miles from North Texas and slaughtered Saturday morning shoppers to stop what he called “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.

“If you would have come before to get to know our culture, you would have experienced what warm and good-hearted people us Hispanics are. We would have opened our doors to you to share a meal, breakfast, lunch or dinner – Mexican style. So, then, your ugly thoughts of us that have been instilled in you would have turned around,” Tinajero said as her daughter, Melissa Tinajero, sat by her side in the witness box in 409th District Court.

“Now you have the rest of your life to live in loneliness, and in that loneliness, you will feel ours. You’re so young to be in this place. That’s the choice you made. I hope and pray that you repent and ask the Lord for forgiveness for your soul’s sake. May God have mercy on your soul when your time comes. And I truly say this from the bottom of my heart.”

As Tinajero prepared to turn the microphone over to her daughter, District Judge Sam Medrano asked: “Ma’am, would it truly bring you peace and comfort if you were to hug him?”

“Yes,” Tijanero replied.

“Go right ahead,” Medrano said.

Tinajero responded, “Thank you, your honor.”

Courthouse security officers, in place in part to keep victims away from Crusius, escorted Tinajero across the courtroom to what normally is the jury box, where Crusius and his lawyers have sat for two days of victim impact statements.

One of his attorneys, Mark Stevens, whispered to a confused-looking Crusius. The gunman, shackled at the wrists and with a ballistic vest around his orange-and-white jail jumpsuit, stepped tentatively toward the 71-year-old woman walking across the courtroom.

Tinajero embraced him and whispered something in his ear. It wasn’t clear if Crusius spoke.

Medrano turned away and began to weep. Media and other victims’ family members in the courtroom sobbed.

Tinajero did not speak to the media after the encounter, and cameras weren’t permitted in the courtroom during victim impact statements.

In her impact statement, Tinajero spoke lovingly about her brother, Arturo, who was 60 when Crusius ended his life.

“My brother was a kind, sweet-hearted person. He was married to Paty for over 30 years and they never had children of their own. All the nephews and nieces on both sides of our family were treated as their children.

“He did his best in contributing to the all of them on special occasions such as birthdays, quinceañeras, graduations, school events, baskets for Easter and gifts for Christmas.

“That’s who he was. He was there for all of these people, and also gave guidance and comforting words to those that were going through teenage growing pains.

“He wasn’t perfect, but he gave his best.”

When Adriana Zandri heard of the hug, she reached out to the court to ask permission to do the same. She had given her victim impact statement Monday, talking about the impact of the slaying of her husband, Ivan Filiberto Manzano.

“I’d like to ask permission, on behalf of myself and my children, to hug Mr. Patrick,” she said in Spanish.

“Ma’am, would that help you and your family seek comfort, peace and healing?” Medrano asked?

“Yes, sir,” Zandri replied, and walked across the courtroom shadowed by several security officers.

Crusius, who knew in advance of Zandri’s request, embraced her, using his shackled hands in a form of embrace.

Photographers had been allowed in the courtroom at that point because Zandri was the last person to address Crusius. Moments later, he was taken from an El Paso courtroom for the final time, eventually headed to the state prison system to serve multiple life terms for capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

In her victim impact statement Monday, Zandri had spoken of what she and her two children – who live in Ciudad Juárez – had lost at the hands of a gunman who said he wanted to stop “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

“My husband was proudly Mexican. My children are proudly Mexican. As a wife and a mother, I am proud of having been part of this Mexican family,” she said to the gunman.

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