Speaking to the gunman who killed her brother and 22 other people, Yolanda Tinajero did not raise her voice or condemn him for his racist attack at a Walmart in 2019. Instead she told him Tuesday that she forgave him, and wished she could give him a hug, CNN reported.
The judge, in a surprising turn in an El Paso courtroom, allowed her to do just that.
Their brief embrace — while Patrick Crusius was still shackled — was among many emotionally charged moments during two days of impact statements given by victims’ family members and survivors.
Some described their pain and devastation while others assured him the community had met his hatred with love and unity. Later, another person also hugged the man who pleaded guilty in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the US.
Crusius, a White community college dropout, had posted online a screed about a Hispanic invasion of Texas before opening fire with an AK-style rifle at the store near the US-Mexico border on August 3, 2019. He didn’t address the families and survivors at his plea hearing Monday. He will serve multiple life sentences after pleading guilty to capital murder and 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
“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 told him.
Tinajero said her brother, 60-year-old Arturo Benavides, was a “kind, sweet-hearted person,” whose wife of over 30 years is broken hearted over her loss.
“Now she lives alone in their home full of memories that she can’t forget,” she said.
“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,” Tinajero said. “I want you to see and feel all of us who have been impacted by your actions.”
Later, the judge asked her: “Ma’am, would it truly bring you peace and comfort if you could hug him?”
’Yes,” she replied.
Her daughter, Melissa Tinajero, told reporters: “I don’t know how she was able to do it. I could not do that. But she showed him something he could not show his victims.”
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