A woman hugs the man who fatally shot her brother and 22 more in a racist attack at a Texas Walmart

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.

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 U.S.

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 U.S.-Mexico border on Aug. 3, 2019. Crusius 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.”

Stephanie Melendez told Crusius that she did not want to address him but rather read a letter to her father, 63-year-old David Johnson, who was killed when he shielded his wife and 9-year-old granddaughter from the gunfire.

Melendez thanked her father for making her study, giving her a curfew and telling her when she was 16 that she needed to get a job.

“You made me into the strong woman I am today,” she said.

Her daughter, Kaitlyn Melendez, now 14, told Crusius: “I am a survivor, not a victim.”

“I’m going to walk out these doors and move forward with my life and not let you haunt me anymore.”

Dean Reckard, whose 63-year-old mother Margie Reckard was among those killed, expressed anger and forgiveness as he addressed Crusius.

“You’re a disgrace to humanity and to your family,” Reckard said, adding that he hopes Crusius wakes up each morning wishing he were dead.

But Reckard also said he forgave the gunman who will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

“In order to be forgiving, you have to forgive others," he said. "That’s the only reason I forgive you. May God have mercy on your soul.”

Thousands of people attended Margie Reckard's funeral after her partner of 22 years, Antonio Basco, invited the public to the service, saying he felt alone after her death.

Liliana Munoz of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, said in court Monday that she was shopping for snacks when Crusius opened fire, forever changing her life physically, economically and emotionally.

In her statement, she said she used to be a “happy, dancing person,” but now is afraid every morning when she awakes. Since she was shot, she has had to use a cane to walk and wears a leg brace to keep her left foot from dragging.

“It left me sad, bitter,” said the 41-year-old mother.

She also granted Crusius forgiveness.

Javier Rodriguez was 15 and starting his sophomore year in high school when he was shot and killed at a bank in Walmart.

On Tuesday his father Francisco Rodriguez shouted at Crusius: “Look at me, I’m talking to you.”

He told Crusius that he and his family have to go to the cemetery to commemorate his son's birthday.

“I wish I could just get five minutes with you — me and you — and get all of this, get it over with,” he said.

But Rodriguez also referred to comments made about Crusius' impact on El Paso during his sentencing.

“Like the judge said yesterday, you came down to El Paso with the intention of tearing us apart, but all you did, you brought us together,” he said.

This story has been updated to correct that Javier Rodriguez’s family members go to the cemetery to commemorate his birthday, not his death.

Yolanda Tinajero, whose brother Arturo Benavides was killed in the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting, reacts during a hearing for Patrick Crusius in El Paso, Texas, Monday, April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)

Yolanda Tinajero, whose brother Arturo Benavides was killed in the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting, attends a hearing for Patrick Crusius Monday, April 21, 2025, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)

Patrick Crusius is seen in court during a plea hearing for the 2019 Walmart shooting in El Paso, Texas, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)

Adriana Zandri, widow of Ivan Manzano killed during the Walmart mass shooting, hugs defendant Patrick Crusius during a plea hearing in El Paso, Texas, Tuesday, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)

Adriana Zandri, widow of Ivan Manzano killed during the Walmart mass shooting, hugs defendant Patrick Crusius during a plea hearing in El Paso, Texas, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - In this Aug. 3, 2019, photo Texas state police cars block the access to the Walmart store in the aftermath of a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)

A person reacts during a hearing for Patrick Crusius, the Walmart mass shooter, in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)

Patrick Crusius enters the Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue for his sentencing in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)

El Paso District Attorney James Montoya talks to media outside the 409th District Court after Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty in the death of 23 people in the Aug. 3. 2019 Walmart Mass shooting, Monday, April 21, 2025, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)

Judge Sam Medrano speaks during a hearing for Patrick Crusius, the Walmart mass shooter, in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)

Families embrace as they leave the 409th District Court after Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty in the death of 23 people in the Aug. 3. 2019 Walmart Mass shooting, Monday, April 21, 2025, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)

A heavy security presence is seen outside the El Paso County Court House on the day Patrick Crusius is set to plea guilty to the Aug. 3. 2019 Walmart Mass shooting that left 23 dead, Monday, April 21, 2025, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)

Family members leave the court after a hearing for Patrick Crusius at the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse in El Paso, Texas, Monday, April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)

A person reacts during a hearing for Patrick Crusius at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, Monday, April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)

People leave the courtroom after impact statements in a hearing for Patrick Crusius at the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse in El Paso, Texas, Monday, April 21, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)

Families embrace as they leave the 409th District Court after Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty in the death of 23 people in the Aug. 3. 2019 Walmart Mass shooting, Monday, April 21, 2025, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)

A person reacts during a hearing for Patrick Crusius, the Walmart mass shooter, in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)

Patrick Crusius attends a sentencing hearing with Judge Sam Medrano in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue during in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)

Family members await the start of the sentencing for Patrick Crusius, the Walmart mass shooter, at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, on April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nadia Comaneci, Apolo Ohno, Bart Conner and Cullen Jones were among the more than 300 Olympic and Paralympic athletes who gathered Tuesday under the peristyle at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the Summer Games will open in 2028.

In an effort to promote Wednesday's registration launch for tickets to the Los Angeles Games, the athletes representing 28 different Olympics dating to 1960 joined Janet Evans in a short countdown to the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron against a clear blue winter sky.

“LA is committed to delivering an athlete-centered games and that can only happen if athletes are actually at the center of our planning,” said Evans, the Olympic champion swimmer who is chief athlete officer for the LA28 organizing committee.

The get-together felt like a homecoming to Ohno, the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian ever with eight short track speedskating medals.

“I walked in and I literally saw like 50 of my friends that I'd grown up in the Olympic training center with for many years,” he said. "I haven't seen some of these people for 10 years or more."

The athletes met with LA28 officials beforehand, with several offering suggestions on how to improve the athlete experience.

“We have the athlete voice in the areas that really need to be heard,” said Jones, the retired swimmer who joined the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee last summer as associate director of athlete marketing. “I'm really excited to see what LA28 looks like.”

Conner noted that with the majority of venues already built in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City, which will host softball and canoe slalom, organizers can focus on the competitors. The three-time Olympic gymnast capped his career at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

“The athletes know that they're the center of every decision,” he said. “It's not just like, let's call the athletes and see what they think about it. The athletes are already in all the board meetings. I understood today that there's more athletes involved in leadership here in the Olympic organizing committee than there are at the IOC.”

Nearby, Comaneci twirled for photographers under the peristyle. The Romanian gymnast became a teenage superstar at the 1976 Montreal Games, where she earned the first perfect 10.0 mark in Olympic history. She and Conner will mark their 30th wedding anniversary in April.

Registration opens at 10 a.m. EST on Wednesday at Tickets.LA28.org. It's the first step for a chance to secure a time slot to buy tickets starting in April. After registering, fans will be randomly assigned time slots to buy tickets throughout future ticket releases.

Individual tickets, hospitality packages including tickets and packages involving travel and accommodations will also go on sale later this year.

The Olympic cauldron is lit at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of the launch for ticket registration to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Former Olympians gather for a group photo at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of the launch for ticket registration to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The Olympic cauldron is lit at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of the launch for ticket registration to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Former Olympian Jane Evans, LA28 Chief Athlete Officer, center right, stands next to Casey Wasserman, LA28 Chairperson and President, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of the launch for ticket registration to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The Olympic cauldron is lit at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of the launch for ticket registration to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)