Dayton, August 4 (RHC)-- In the United States, a gunman has shot and killed nine people and wounded 16 others at an arts and entertainment district in downtown Dayton, Ohio.  The shooting happened early Sunday morning, authorities said, noting the suspect was killed by police.

Just after 3 a.m., police asked residents to avoid the area known as the Oregon District, which is home to a number of nightclubs, art galleries and restaurants.

The shooting comes just 12 hours after another one in El Paso, Texas, where a gunman fatally shot 20 people and injured 26 others at a Walmart store.  The gunman armed with a powerful assault-style rifle opened fire at the Cielo Vista Wal-Mart store in the majority-Hispanic border city.

The 21-year-old from Allen, a suburb of Dallas, then surrendered to police outside the store and was taken into custody, Texas authorities said.  He was identified as Patrick Crusius, who, according to media reports, is white and linked to a "manifesto" posted online that described an attack in response to a “Hispanic invasion.”

The shooter in El Paso, located on the U.S.-Mexico border, is described as a Trump supporter who wrote a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto just hours before committing the massacre.  The four-page document is entitled “The Inconvenient Truth.”  The text takes aim at the Hispanic community and expresses support for the Christchurch, New Zealand, shooter who opened fire at two mosques in March and killed 51 people. 

“In general, I support the Christchurch shooter and his manifesto.  This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.  They are the instigators, not me.  I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion,” begins the screed.  The manifesto includes lots of white supremacist language, such as claiming that the writer was “against race mixing.” 

One political observer noted that it is interesting that the young man would conveniently forget history, noting that Texas -- only a little more than 170 years ago -- was a part of Mexico.  The "invasion" was by U.S. Army troops, led by Sam Houston in 1836, which forced Mexico to abandon the state and Texas was annexed to the United States.