Yuma's mayor calls this past weekend's mass shooting in El Paso, Texas a huge tragedy.
Two more victims of the mass shooting at a crowded Wal-Mart on Saturday died at a hospital Monday, raising the death toll in the attack to 22. Mayor Doug Nicholls traveled to El Paso less than a month ago for a bipartisan meeting of border mayors on the “migration crisis” on the Southwest Border.
Despite the size differences, the mayor described El Paso and Yuma as “similar communities.”
He calls the mass shooting in the Texas city “a huge tragedy,” and he says we need to show our compassion to the city "as they mourn and they try to come to terms with their new reality of, of that tragedy."
The 21 year old Dallas area man taken into custody for the El Paso mass shooting, is believed to be the author of an internet manifesto expressing, among other things, outrage over the “Hispanic invasion” of Texas.
In April, Nicholls declared a city state of emergency over the impact of the Border Patrol dropping off asylum seeking migrant families here in Yuma. In his declaration he urged area residents to remain calm over the releases.
"That is what I was talking about, was trying to, make sure we keep everything in perspective," Nicholls said. "Human life is human life, nobody needs to die needlessly over these issues."
Prosecutors say they are pursuing civil rights hate crime and domestic terrorism investigations against the suspect, who was taken into custody without incident by law enforcement officers.
