The two deadly mass shooting incidents in the US during the last 24 hours -- 1,500 miles apart -- have killed 30 people.

 

A man armed with a rifle opened fire at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, killing 20 people and wounding 26 others as panicked shoppers and employees scurried for cover before the gunman surrendered to police at the scene.

 

In another incident, 10 people, including one suspect, were killed early on Sunday in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio, and at least 16 others were taken to hospitals with injuries, police said.

 

In the El Paso incdent, many shoppers in the busy store were buying back-to-school supplies when they found themselves caught up in the latest mass shooting to rock the US, just six days after a teenage gunman killed three people at a summer food festival in Northern California, said a Reuters report.

 

Saturday’s suspect was officially identified as a 21-year-old white male from Allen, Texas, a Dallas suburb some 650 miles (1,046 km) east of El Paso, which lies along the Rio Grande, across the US-Mexico border from Ciudad Juarez.

 

Citing law enforcement officials, multiple news media reports named the suspect as Patrick Crusius.

 

El Paso police chief Greg Allen said authorities were examining a manifesto from the suspect indicating “there is a potential nexus to a hate crime.” Officials declined to elaborate and said the investigation was continuing.

 

But a four-page statement posted on 8chan, an online message board often used by extremists, and believed to have been authored by the suspect, called the Walmart attack “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

 

It also expressed support for the gunman who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March.

 

On the Ohio shooting, authorities gave no details about the circumstances of the shooting except that it occurred in the city’s Oregon District, an historic neighborhood known for its nightclubs, bars, art galleries and shops.

 

The Dayton Daily News said the shooting occurred at or near an establishment called Ned Pepper’s Bar in Dayton’s Oregon District.