Texas gunman was sacked from job hours before killing seven people
Seth Ator shot dead at least seven people and injured 22
A man who killed seven people and injured 22 more in a shooting spree in Texas had been sacked from his job just hours before.
Seth Aaron Ator, 36, hijacked two separate vehicles and fired at random as he drove through the the cities of Odessa and Midland in the west of the state on Saturday afternoon, before being shot down by police.
He had been fired from his truck-driving job that morning, law enforcement officials said, and started shooting after being pulled over by Texas state troopers for failing to indicate before turning.
Image: Postal worker Mary Granados, 29, was killed in the attack. Pic: GoFundMe
Image: Rodolfo Arco, 56, had a trucking business. Pic: GoFundMe
Victims of the massacre include Mary Granados, a 29-year-old postal worker identified by the US Postal Service.
Her twin sister Rosie, who said they had planned to celebrate their 30th birthday together, told NBC News: "She was so special. "I don't know what I'm going to do without her."
Rodolfo Arco, 56, father to three daughters, was returning from work at a trucking business when a bullet hit him in the head, according to his wife.
Bari Arco said the couple had been married for 20 years. "Now he's gone," she told NBC.
Odessa High School student Leilah Hernandez, 15, was also among the victims. A GoFundMe page set up to raise money for funeral expenses said her brother Nathan, 18, was among those injured.
Her grandmother, Nora Leyva, told the Washington Post the pair were walking out of a truck dealership and that their mother and nine-year-old brother were also with them when they were shot.
Image: High school student Leilah Hernandez, 15, was among the victims. Pic: GoFundMe
Ms Leyva said Leilah's mother pushed their young brother under a car, while Nathan wrapped his arms around Leilah and was shot in the arm.
The youngest person named as wounded was a 17-month-old girl, Anderson Davis, who is being treated in hospital for injuries to her chest and face.
In a post on Facebook, her mother Kelby Davis said: "We are laying here tonight holding our babies tight, exhausted, relieved, anxious, thankful, hurting, and experiencing many other emotions."
The bullet, she said, went through their car at a red light and "hit Anderson in the mouth and chest".
She will have further surgery on Monday to remove shrapnel from her chest, Texas governor Greg Abbott told reporters on Sunday.
Edwin Peregrino, 25, was killed outside his parents' house, his sister Eritizi Peregrino, 23, told the Washington Post.
Paying tribute, she said: "You could always count on him for anything. He would always help my parents and his siblings. I knew I could always rely on him and call on him."
Father-of-two Joseph Griffith, 40, was sitting at a traffic light with his wife and children when he was shot dead, his sister, Carla Byrne, said.
"This maniac pulled up next to him and shot him, took away his life, murdered my baby brother. Like nothing," she said. "We are so broken."
Great job by Texas Law Enforcement and First Responders in handling the terrible shooting tragedy yesterday. Thank you also to the FBI, @GregAbbott_TX and all others. A very tough and sad situation! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2019
Ator opened fire on police who had stopped him and then took off in a gold car, shooting at random for more than 10 miles (16km).
At some point during the chase that followed, he abandoned the car and stole a postal vehicle, killing Ms Granados.
Police disabled the vehicle by ramming it with an SUV and shot Ator dead at a cinema complex car park.
The massacre came exactly a month after a mass shooting in the Texas border town of El Paso, which killed 22 people.
Dunehound on September 2nd, 2019 at 20:48 UTC »
Ah man, when I was in a workforce security position, long time ago, this kind of outcome was my #1 nightmare.
Someone gets fired, you have to sometimes personally escort them off the business property, then you watch for that person like a hawk for weeks at a time, expecting them to come back with a gun. Disgruntled current and ex-employees.
He decided to not come back, but go out. Now I can imagine being the security manager, or whoever they have--if anyone at all--for the trucking company, left to wonder...
Does the rest of the world have security managers for their business, that have disgruntled employees coming back to massacre their co-workers as one of their likely daily concerns?
Mrs_Peanutbutter on September 2nd, 2019 at 19:25 UTC »
AP News also just reported that the gunman called the police and the FBI shortly before the attack. (source)
If this is true I am starting to think if this "left turn" failure was more like a "this is the license of the unhinged man who just called" kind of thing. But I guess it could be possible that by extreme coincidence he was actually pulled for a turn on his way to some kind of planned attack or murder.
Edit: AP news just updated their report to include now that his company also called 911 after firing the employee. They both did. The shooter was "rambling" according to the article. And they confirmed CNN's story that the shooter was living without power/water, which reflects a distressed mental state or a lack of self-care. source
Edit 2: CNN just interviewed his employer and according to him, the gunman was fired for his extremely poor mental state as he came to work that day rather than him going into that state following being fired. It appears that he may have been in some kind of "episode" that led to both his firing and also a shooting.
thweet_jethuth on September 2nd, 2019 at 18:16 UTC »
He was fired from his truck-driving job that morning. I know it says he shot people at random, but one of the victims owned a trucking company and one of the victims was shot driving home from his job at a trucking business. I wonder if he didn't plan out some of that.