Odessa - Four weeks after a gunman opened fire on customers
at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, another mass shooting has claimed
five lives and left 21 wounded in Texas.
The tragedy unfolded around 3:30 Saturday afternoon, and the rampage,
which lasted nearly two hours, left residents of the twin cities of
Midland and Odessa reeling.
The shootings began with a traffic stop and ended in an exchange of
gunfire with police in a movie theater parking lot. The attacks were
all the more terrifying for their apparent randomness.
Details have yet to be released on the victims and, according to
Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke, the wounded include three law
enforcement officers.
The shooter, who was firing from his vehicle, has only been
identified as a white male in his 30s. His motives were unclear.
"Grab your loved ones. Pray for this town," said Russell Tippin,
chief executive officer of the hospital where some of the victims
were being treated.
"This is a scary incident," he added in an interview with a local
television station.
The shootings mark what has become an especially deadly summer of gun
violence across the country.
In July, three people were killed by a gunman at a festival in
Gilroy, California, and on the day after the El Paso shooting, nine
people were killed in Dayton, Ohio.
But Saturday's shooting comes at a time when Texans are still feeling
shaken by the killings in El Paso.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who recently formed a commission to look
into the El Paso shootings and planned to visit Odessa on Sunday,
said in a statement: "I want to remind all Texans that we will not
allow the Lone Star State to be overrun by hatred and violence."
Democratic presidential hopeful and El Paso native Beto O'Rouke
reacted to the shooting on Twitter, saying, "Our hearts are with
Midland, Odessa, and everyone in West Texas who had to endure this
again ... . We need to end this epidemic."
"Our community is devastated," said John B. Love, a City Council
member in Midland. "It's just really, really horrible."
Love, who supports gun rights, added that the country needs to have a
conversation about mass shootings "because lives depend on it."
"Something has to be done," he said.
Residents of Midland and Odessa had been busy celebrating the start
of Labor Day weekend. A nine-day country fair - the Permian Basin
Fair and Exposition - had opened Friday with pig races, a tractor
pull and a Wild West show.
Less than 24 hours later, law enforcement officers were advising
motorists to keep off the roads.
"Active Shooter! Please Share!" read a posting on the Facebook page
for the Odessa Police Department.
At the time there were unconfirmed reports of a second gunman, only
adding to the chaos of the rapid evolving shooting rampage, which
began with a trooper from the Department of Public Safety being shot
after stopping the gunman's gold Honda between Midland and Odessa.
The shooter then drove west into Odessa, according to police, and
began "shooting at random people."
Zindy Galindo was heading to Walmart that afternoon with her
3-year-old son when she was nearly cut off by an erratic driver who
shot at the vehicle ahead of her.
Galindo heard the gunfire, not knowing at first what it was. Then she
saw the back window of the vehicle in front of her shatter.
"At that point, I panicked," she said, "and called my husband."
She continued to the Walmart, thinking it was a case of road rage,
but when she saw people running through the parking lot, she knew it
more serious.
When the gold Honda passed by, the driver still shooting, she said,
"I grabbed my son out of the car seat and hid on the floor of my
SUV."
The gunman had apparently chosen 42nd Street in Odessa as his target.
One of Odessa's main drags, 42nd Street has a number of retail
businesses - Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Starbucks - crowded with
Saturday shoppers.
Vehicles parked along the street were punctured with bullets. A
17-month-old girl was among the bystanders wounded in the attack.
Hit in the face with a bullet fragment, she was flown to Lubbock for
treatment, according to family friend, and was in stable condition
Saturday night.
A restaurant worker described the chaos of people screaming and
upending chairs as they tried to find cover.
Reporters at CBS 7, who were covering the shooting from their studios
inside a shopping mall, were ordered to evacuate by police, who
initially believed the shooter was nearby.
They continued to report remotely on the mayhem of shoppers running
through the mall until police determined the mall was clear.
The shooter fired indiscriminately along 42nd Street, and at some
point abandoned his vehicle, hijacked a mail truck and continued
firing.
An unidentified witness told the local television station that her
letter carrier had been shot in the head during the theft of the
vehicle.
Jorge Nieto was at his parent's home in Odessa, scrolling through
Facebook, when he began seeing posts calling attention to an active
shooter in his neighborhood.
Walking to the front of the house, he looked outside his window and
saw a body lying on the street. He wasn't certain if it was the
postal carrier or another victim.
"I didn't hear any gunshots," he said. "I was confused. I thought
someone got in a fight."
Nieto also described seeing a mail truck nearby with police vehicles
approaching.
"It's normal for us to see four or five cop cars in this part of
town," he said.
The shooter was en route to a movie theater complex, where after
colliding with a law enforcement vehicle in the parking lot he
exchanged gunfire with police officers and died.
Movie patrons fled the theater and flooded the parking lot. Some took
cover in a dirt field in view of the shooting of the suspect.
Video showed police approaching the stolen postal truck with their
guns drawn and firing.
Officials declined to comment on whether the shooter was killed by
police officers or took his own life.
As victims lie in hospitals, recovering from the shootings in El Paso
and now in Odessa, the newly formed Texas Safety Commission has been
meeting to consider what Governor Abbott has described as the "next
step" in responding robustly and rapidly to such shootings.