After four prosecutors and nearly six years, El Paso DA decides it’s time to stop pursuing the death penalty for mass shooter

The family of Javier Amir Rodriguez, a victim of the El Paso Walmart shooting, at a 2022 memorial service at the El Paso County Healing Garden, on the third anniversary of the shooting that left 23 people dead. (Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune)

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EL PASO — El Paso District Attorney James Montoya campaigned for the job saying he would pursue the death penalty against the 26-year-old gunman who killed 23 people in a local Walmart in 2019 and said he wanted “to shoot as many Mexicans as possible.”