(Reuters) - The gunman who killed seven people and wounded 23 others in a rolling rampage across West Texas obtained an assault-style rifle despite failing a background check, state and law enforcement officials said on Monday.
The gunman, identified by police as Seth Aaron Ator, 36, carried out the shooting spree in the neighboring cities of Midland and Odessa on Saturday, a short time after he was fired from his trucking job. He called local emergency 911 responders and then an FBI tip line to make rambling statements, officials said.
In those calls, Ator did not threaten to commit violence, they said.
But he would soon go on to open fire on civilians and police officers in a roving series of shootings, at one point hijacking a U.S. Postal Service truck before dying in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement, police said.
It was the second mass shooting in Texas in four weeks, and the state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, expressed frustration on Monday the suspect had a firearm.
“We must keep guns out of criminals’ hands,” Abbott said on Twitter.
Ator was rejected when he tried to buy a gun and his name was run through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, John Wester, assistant special agent in charge of the Dallas office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told a news conference.
Authorities could not immediately say how he obtained a firearm, Wester added.
It also was not immediately clear when or why he had failed the background check. Online court records showed Ator had convictions in 2002 for criminal trespass and evading arrest.
But Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke told a news conference on Monday that Ator’s past interactions with police in that area, where the gunman lived, were not serious enough to have legally prevented him from having a firearm.
President Donald Trump over the weekend called the Odessa-Midland shooter “a very sick person,” but said increased background checks on gun buyers would not have prevented many mass shootings in the United States in the past few years.
A man holds flowers and a candle as people gather for a vigil following Saturday's shooting in Odessa, Texas, U.S. September 1, 2019. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare
Democrats in Congress want to close loopholes that under federal law, allow certain people to sell firearms without requiring background checks, such as in sales conducted online, at gun shows or out of their homes.
Trump said last month he had spoken to the National Rifle Association gun rights group about closing loopholes in background checks but he did not want to take away the constitutional right to own guns.
Hours after he was fired from his trucking job and 15 minutes after he called the FBI tip line, Ator was pulled over in a sedan by Texas state troopers on Interstate 20 in Midland for failing to use a turn signal, police said.
Armed with an AR-type rifle, Ator fired out the back window of his gold-colored car, wounding one trooper. Then he drove away spraying gunfire indiscriminately, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
At one point, Ator abandoned his car and hijacked a U.S. postal van, mortally wounding the letter carrier, identified by officials as Mary Grandos, 29.
He shot seven people to death, leaving behind a trail of 15 crime scenes with 23 other people wounded in the rampage, officials said.
Three police officers were shot and wounded - one from Midland, one from Odessa and one state trooper - all in stable condition at hospitals.
Ator was later cornered by officers in the parking lot of a cinema complex in Odessa where he was shot and killed.
The FBI has scoured Ator’s home, Christopher Combs, special agent in charge of the FBI office in San Antonio, told a news conference on Monday.
“I can tell you the conditions reflect what we believe his mental state was going into this,” Combs said.
“He was on a long spiral of going down. He didn’t wake up Saturday morning and walk into his company and then it happened. He went into that company in trouble. He’s probably been in trouble for a while,” Combs said.
The rampage came about a month after a gunman from the Dallas area killed 22 people on Aug. 3 at a Walmart store about 255 miles (410 km) west of Midland in El Paso, Texas.
chewitupandleave on September 3rd, 2019 at 10:46 UTC »
This guy is from my home town. My brother and a I went to HS with him and his older sister. They were both POSs and crazy.
His sis commited suicide a few years back. There is a history of crazy and unstable behavior from them.
Everone of his friends in HS have overdosed and died or are in prison or rehab right now. (One is in prison)
His criminal trespass and evading priors stemmed from a break up with his Gf, and lives being harrased and threatened. Then hiding from police.
His gun was a 9ml AR look a like. He was allowed to own it from what a local PO explained. He was denied from buying a particular Type of gun when.
Now in our town, camera crews are everywhere digging up info on this loser. Theyre even parked and packed infront of a house he USED to live in over a decade ago. A nice house with another family living there that have nothing to do with him
Apparently he made everyone at his job nervouse, too. On the day of the shooting, he showed up to work and got fired before hand. He was told to leave the property and the police had to be called, but he had left before they arrived.
He may have been on his way back to shoot up his employer when he was stopped and shot a highway patrolman.
Dunehound on September 3rd, 2019 at 03:55 UTC »
Man, the amount of warning signs on this guy.
He even failed a background check, and had past interactions in his community with local law enforcement. Which probably weren't for patting him on the back for being a model citizen. Not with his record.
'Multiple interactions' usually means you're a regular troublemaker in your neighborhood. That the law has been called out to talk to you. Drink, drugs, belligerence, noise complaints, maybe worse.
Evading arrest in Texas penal code has subsections that can make it a felony, so wait and see what else details come out on this. Though, given the amount of potential fuck-ups had to go on to miss this guy, I'm not sure we'll hear all the damning details.
Mrs_Peanutbutter on September 3rd, 2019 at 03:46 UTC »
The police were called to his home because his neighbour reported that he was shooting out of a structure from his roof. Right into his yard. His neighbour also reported that he used a rifle to threaten her life. What the police do? Tried to find his house, couldn’t find his house, and then literally did nothing. They did nothing.
This could be about background checks, or illegal firearms, but there was a very clear way this attack could have been prevented and it didn’t happen. Even a little research could have brought up records showing that the man reportedly firing a gun into his own backyard was not allowed to have a gun.
Edit, Source: https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/west-texas-shooting-odessa-midland/index.html