Updated at 9:26 a.m. on Feb. 7, 2020: Updated to add comment from the attorney of the shooter’s family.

EL PASO — The confessed shooter who in August targeted Mexicans at a Walmart, killing 22 and injuring dozens more, faces federal hate crime charges that carry a potential penalty of death.

A federal grand jury indictment was unsealed Thursday against Patrick Crusius, 21, of Allen. The indictment comes six months after the August 3 mass killing stunned the U.S., Mexico and this borderland region.

The indictment charges Crusius with 90 counts. The first 22 are hate crime resulting in death, for each person he killed; Counts 23-44 are use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a crime of violence; counts 45-67 are hate crime involving attempt to kill; and the remaining 22 counts are use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

U.S. Attorney John F. Bash made the announcement with other top officials, including Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and FBI El Paso Division Special Agent in Charge Luis M. Quesada.

“This attack deeply scarred this community,” Bash said at a news conference.

"By charging the defendant under that law, we’re indicating the important federal interest in stopping crimes that are motivated by hatred of a particular group of people,” said Bash, who has roots in El Paso.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr will decide whether federal authorities will pursue the death penalty on the federal charges at a later date, according to a statement by the Department of Justice. Both federal and state charges will be pursued simultaneously, authorities said,

The indictment, which lists the initials of each victim, says Crusius bought a GP WASR-10 semi-automatic rifle on the internet in June 2019. The weapon is a variant of the AK-47 assault rifle. He also bought 1,000 rounds of “hollow point” ammunition online, according to the indictment.

Federal and state authorities say Crusius drove some 700 miles overnight from North Texas to hunt down Mexicans. He turned himself in shortly after opening fire on shoppers at the Walmart here.

Dreiband said, “Today, we and the grand jury allege that the defendant committed federal hate crimes, and that he committed these violent crimes to frighten and intimidate the Hispanic community.”

Crusius already faces state charges on one count of capital murder of multiple persons that claimed victims from both sides of the border. Eight of the victims were Mexican nationals.

Last October, Crusius entered a not guilty plea on the state charges, although he had earlier confessed to police. El Paso prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Crusius remains jailed without bond. A special hearing in the state case is scheduled for Feb. 13.

El Paso Walmart mass shooter Patrick Crusius is arraigned Thursday, Oct., 10, 2019 in state court in El Paso. (Mark Lambie / AP)

His first hearing in federal court is set for a day earlier at 10 a.m.

“We support the indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as one more way of holding the shooter accountable,” District Attorney Jaime Esparza said in a statement. “The District Attorney’s Office will continue to work hard to ensure that justice is done and that the shooter is held accountable by our community. The office will fully cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the prosecution of the federal charges to be announced today.”

For the state trial, no trial date or decision on a potential change of venue have been decided. A change of trial location could cost taxpayers as much as $6 million, county officials have said.

Crusius has been determined to be indigent, meaning the county is paying for his defense. Joe A. Spencer, one of Crusius’ attorneys, did not immediately respond to questions.

The shooting was the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern U.S. history. After the shooting, investigators found a racist manifesto posted online that they say was written and uploaded to the internet by Crusius as he sat inside his car in the parking lot of the Walmart minutes before the attack.

The Walmart has long been a magnet for shoppers from both sides of the border.

In the manifesto, titled “The Inconvenient Truth,” he railed against the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

“They are the instigators, not me,” Crusius wrote, according to the indictment. “I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by the invasion."

Earlier in the day, Bash and other officials met with relatives of the victims. He thanks state and federal officials and said, “we all share the same goal here. That’s to achieve justice for the victims and their families.”

At the news conference he noted the rise in hate crimes motivated by racist propaganda online and said, “We’re not going to let up. Our resolve is firm. we’re going to take the fight to these violent extremists and we’re going to win.”

Many community leaders, among them U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, have blamed political leaders, particularly President Donald J. Trump, for using inflammatory language against immigrants that allegedly helped inspired Crusius’ fears of ethnic replacement. In the manifesto, the author specifically says he developed his beliefs before Trump became president.

In her rebuttal speech following Tuesday’s State of the Union, Escobar tied the murders directly to Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric, framing gun violence as a public health epidemic. During his address to the nation, Trump used the same kind of rhetoric, citing examples of undocumented migrants who had committed violent crimes in sanctuary cities, even though studies indicate that illegal immigration does not increase violent crime.

“Just before [the shooter] began his killing spree, he published his opinions on the Internet, and he used the same hateful words used by President Trump to describe immigrants and Latinos,” Escobar said. “Incidents of gun violence take place in our schools, places of worship and neighborhoods every single day.”

Asked about the role of hate speech coming from federal officials, including Trump, Bash replied Thursday, “...we prosecute crimes of violence. We don’t prosecute speech. What I can say to the Hispanic community is that the Justice Department is totally engaged in stopping people, who for whatever motivation, but in particular for hateful motivation, would plot acts of violence on other people. … the only person who was responsible for this... is the mass shooter, and we’re going to bring him to justice.”

In a statement, the Mexican government congratulated the U.S. Attorney General’s office for the indictments.

"With the new charges announced today, we reiterate and condemn hate speech, xenophobia, and white supremacists, as we do any other acts of violence,” said the statement issued by the foreign ministry. The charges, the statement added, reflect Mexico’s efforts to “build more inclusive and peaceful societies that recognize plurality and the value of diversity.”

Christopher Ayres, attorney for relatives of Crusius, released a statement after the indictment in which he wrote, “The immense pain and suffering of all those affected and touched by this tragedy remain in the family’s thoughts and prayers today, as they have been since that awful day.”

A Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll released this week found that Texans overwhelmingly support background checks before gun purchases and say state leaders are not doing enough to stop mass shootings.

The massacre galvanized leaders on both sides of the border to work toward healing emotional wounds through the power of art. Last month, the Dallas-based Credo Community Choir and the Esperanza Azteca Youth Orchestra spearheaded a binational music festival in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez aimed at bringing North Texas and people on both sides of the border closer together.

The town of San Elizario, just east of El Paso, planted 22 oak trees in honor of the victims.

Preliminary report of Cielo Vista Mall being on lockdown was incorrect https://t.co/KvugzNdSrQ — EL PASO POLICE DEPT (@EPPOLICE) February 5, 2020

But El Paso remains on edge. On Wednesday, the Cielo Vista Mall, adjacent to the Walmart, was placed on a temporary lockdown as El Paso police chased and caught multiple robbery suspects. Police later distanced themselves from the term “lockdown,” saying a preliminary report of a lockdown was “incorrect.”

Nonetheless, one Mexican shopper, Eduardo Macias, 31, from Chihuahua, Mexico, said, “We’re all trying to move forward, as if nothing happened, but what happened in El Paso is always on the back of our minds, especially in public areas.”

Staff Writer Kevin Krause in Dallas contributed to this report.