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)

When NBC carried the Kentucky Derby for the first time in 2001, the broadcast lasted only 90 minutes.

On Saturday, when it carries the Run for the Roses for the 25th time, 90 minutes wouldn’t be enough for all the feature stories that will run leading up to post time.

NBC Sports will present 12 1/2 hours of coverage across two days on NBC, USA Network and Peacock. There will be five hours for Friday’s Kentucky Oaks on USA Network and Peacock. Saturday’s coverage begins on USA Network at noon ET before moving to NBC at 2:30 p.m. while Peacock will stream all 7 1/2 hours.

“So much has changed since we first started in 2001. At that time, we thought 90 minutes to cover a two-minute race. How are we going to fill all this time? Now we are still trying to figure out how we’re going to get this story in and that story in because there are so many great stories to tell,” said Donna Brothers, the only member of the broadcast team involved with all 25 Derbys on NBC.

NBC has done five hours of coverage on the main network on Derby Day since 2018. Sam Flood, the executive producer and president of NBC Sports Production, said the true evolution behind adding more hours while making the coverage appeal to a cross-section of viewers began after he produced his first Derby in 2006.

“I remember getting done with the show, which I think was two hours. I kept thinking, we can do so much more,” Flood said. “There are so many assets here that should be showcased, and that’s when we started blowing it out, adding more hours and slowly shifting more and more hours on to NBC and off the cable platforms.”

The expansion has also included the Kentucky Oaks. It started airing on Bravo in 2009 before moving to the NBC Sports Network and then USA Network.

The Derby broadcast has evolved into one of the most diverse sports events that NBC does yearly and is on par with the Olympics, which it carries once every two years, and the Super Bowl, which it has once every four years.

It also might be the only place where a viewer can see fashion, recipes from one of the hosts of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” and race predictions from NBC News chief data analyst Steve Kornacki.

Mike Tirico, the host of NBC’s coverage since 2017, said doing the Derby served as good preparation for hosting the Olympics as well as a stint as a guest host on the “Today” show last week.

“My time doing the Derby helped me to do the ‘Today’ show last week, not vice versa,” he said. “This show is so cool. It goes from speed figures to fascinators. It goes from betting to bourbon. We cover it all in the five hours with a great team of people who dive in and take their space and own it. We all build towards the race. The audience does the same.”

Tirico succeeded Tom Hammond as host. Hammond, a University of Kentucky graduate, was a guiding force around NBC’s early coverage and introducing the sport’s most prominent personalities to viewers.

Lindsay Schanzer, the supervising producer of NBC’s coverage, said one of the advantages of having nearly 4 1/2 hours leading up to post time at 6:57 p.m. ET is the chance to focus on the stories of the 20 horses that will line up in the starting gate.

Among the stories planned are the return of trainer Bob Baffert — who served a three-year suspension after Medina Spirit failed a drug test — 89-year-old trainer D. Wayne Lukas and Michael McCarthy, the trainer of prerace favorite Journalism, whose family was displaced from home in Southern California due to the wildfires.

Because of the many different topics in the broadcast, Schanzer has an interesting approach in how she books the coverage with what she calls a colors document, where each element of coverage has its own color.

“I like to look at it from a broad perspective to make sure there’s not too much of one color in one area, and every color is kind of represented across the show so that if you’re watching it, you’re getting a little bit of a taste of everything,” she said. “One color could be a fashion element, one could be Kornacki’s insights, one could be an interview with a horseman. I try to look at it in a holistic way like that.”

The approach has certainly worked. Last year’s broadcast averaged 16.7 million viewers, the largest Derby audience since 1989. That included an average minute audience of 714,000 streaming on Peacock.

Overall, 11 of the past 15 Derbies held in May have averaged at least 15 million.

“We’ve had all kinds of things happen (since 2001), and that’s what’s so unique about the sport, but specifically about the Derby,” said Jon Miller, NBC Sports president of acquisitions and partnerships. “You have 20 horses that come into that gate and long shots that can pull off the upset. You have favorites, you have great ownership stories, and you have legendary trainers. Who knows who is going to surprise this year? But that’s what’s great about it.”

AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing and Derby coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/kentucky-derby

Horses workout at Churchill Downs Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)