by Matt M. Miller
The suspected gunman in the West Texas shooting Saturday was reportedly fired from his trucking job hours before he opened fire along an Odessa roadway, killing seven people and wounding 22 others.
Police pulled over the 36-year-old suspect for a routine traffic stop along a highway connecting Midland to Odessa, Saturday, when the suspect opened fire, killing both law enforcement officers and civilian drivers.
Officials stated that the 36-year-old suspect had been fire from his job with a trucking business Saturday morning, only hours before the shooting, the New York Times reports.
The 36-year-old man who terrorized 2 West Texas towns with an assault-style rifle Saturday had been fired from his trucking job a few hours before he led the authorities on a chaotic high-speed chase that ended with his death and the deaths of 7 others https://t.co/Hc3IeGjMdb
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 2, 2019
Authorities initially refused to release the identity of the gunman to refrain from giving him notoriety, Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke explained. But later, the department released the identity of Seth A. Ator of Odessa as the sole gunman responsible for the shooting.
Police officers shot and killed Ator in the parking lot of a movie theater in Odessa, putting an end to his shooting spree. Authorities said they have not yet determined a clear motive for the act of violence.
“There are no definite answers as to motive or reasons at this point, but we are fairly certain that the subject did act alone,” Chief Gerke said, according to the New York Times.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Odessa Police Department for a comment but they did not respond by the time of publishing.
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Matt M. Miller is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Odessa Police Department Press Conference” by the City of Odessa/Facebook.
