El Paso shooting suspect’s mother called police about son weeks before massacre, report says

'It’s not like alarm bells were going off,' attorneys for family of suspected shooter say

Weeks before a gunman stormed a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and killed 22 people, the suspect’s mother called police out of fear he had an “AK” style weapon, according to the family’s lawyers.

Attorneys Chris Ayres and R Jack Ayres said the mother of alleged shooter Patrick Crusius was told by police he was legally allowed to purchase the weapon since he was 21-years-old, CNN reported on Thursday.

“This was not a volatile, explosive, erratic behaving kid,” Chris Ayres said. “It’s not like alarm bells were going off.”

When she called the local police department, the mother said she did not provide her son’s name and was eventually transferred to a public safety officer.

The officer reportedly did not seek additional information from the mother, and it was not clear whether the gun she referenced during the call was the one the suspect used to kill 22 people on Saturday when he shot up the store located in the diverse Texas community.

The police listed three minor incidents as “the entirety of our dealings with Mr Crusius, in any capacity, be it suspect, witness, reporting party, or in any other manner,” CNN reported.

Those included a false burglary alarm, a minor traffic accident and a time when Mr Crusius ran away from home and returned shortly after.

The shooting suspect promoted white nationalist sentiments online and posted an anti-immigrant manifesto to the online messaging board 8chan minutes before the Walmart was attacked.

The US Justice Department has reportedly been “seriously considering” filing federal hate crime charges against the suspect, who is currently held at the El Paso County Detention Facility.

Local district attorneys are meanwhile seeking the death penalty.

A source close with the family told CNN that Mr Crusius had been “trying to figure out what to do next” with his life, adding: “When did the wheels come off? We don’t know.”