August 2020 was a month unlike any other for West Texas. Two mass shootings—one in the city of El Paso and another in Odessa—left 29 dead and dozens injured.
The first shooting that month saw a white man from North Texas drive hundreds of miles to El Paso to carry out an attack in response to the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” Twenty-eight days later, and hundreds of miles from the Texas border town, another shooting also left a community in pain and searching for answers.
The continuing coverage submission for Marfa Public Radio explores the 2019 mass shootings in West Texas, how they impacted our local communities, and how the two tragedies pushed the Lone Star State into the national conversation on gun violence, once again.
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A makeshift memorial for the 22 people who died in a mass shooting in El Paso. (Carlos Morales / Marfa Public Radio) -
Members of the El Paso community pack the Horizon High School football stadium Monday for a vigil to honor 15-year-old Javier Amir Rodriguez, who died in a mass shooting Saturday. (Carlos Morales / Marfa Public Radio) -
Friends embrace one another during a vigil for Javier Amir Rodriguez, the youngest victim killed in the El Paso shootings. (Carlos Morales / Marfa Public Radio) -
The makeshift memorial for the victims of the Aug. 3, 2019, shooting outside the Walmart in El Paso, Texas. (Stella M. Chavez / KERA) -
DPS troopers block the road at a shooting scene in Odessa, Texas. (MITCH BORDEN / MARFA PUBLIC RADIO) -
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At the entrance to Odessa High School, a memorial for 15-year-old Leilah Hernandez has been set up by her classmates. (Mitch Borden / Marfa Public Radio) -
At Odessa’s Radcliff Stadium, less than a week after a gunman went on a shooting spree in the city, the Permian Panthers faced off against El Paso’s Franklin Cougars. (Mitch Borden / Marfa Public Radio) -
High school football became a part of the healing process for two West Texas communities, after mass shootings in El Paso and Odessa left 29 dead and dozens more injured. (Mitch Borden / Marfa Public Radio) -
A woman places an offering at a memorial for the victims of a mass shooting Saturday at a Walmart in El Paso. (Carlos Morales / Marfa Public Radio)
