Seven dead as shooter goes on 10-mile rampage in Texas after being stopped by traffic police
AT least seven people have died in America’s latest mass shooting.
The death toll in the west Texas rampage increased yesterday as authorities investigate why a man stopped by state troopers for failing to signal a left turn opened fire on them.
He then fled, shooting more than 20 people as he drove before being killed by officers outside a cinema.
Odessa police spokesman Steve LeSueur said at least one of the shooting victims remained in life-threatening condition.
The gunman has been identified as a white male in his 30s but police have not released a name or possible motive.
The shooting began with a traffic stop where gunfire was exchanged with police, setting off a chaotic rampage during which the suspect hijacked a postal service vehicle and fired at random as he drove in the area of Odessa and Midland.
Police initially reported possible multiple shooters, but Odessa police chief Michael Gerke later said there was only one.
The suspect shot “at innocent civilians all over Odessa”, according to a statement from Odessa police, which did not name the man or offer a motive.
The terrifying chain of events began when state troopers tried pulling over a gold car on Interstate 20 for failing to signal a left turn, Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said.
Before the vehicle came to a stop, the driver “pointed a rifle towards the rear window of his car and fired several shots” at the patrol car stopping him.
The gunshots struck one of two troopers inside the patrol car, Ms Cesinger said, after which the gunman fled and continued shooting.
Two other police officers were shot before the suspect was killed. The condition of the three law enforcement officers injured was not immediately released.
Mr Gerke said there were at least 21 civilian shooting victims.
He said at least five people died. Mr Gerke did not say whether the gunman was included among the five dead, and it was not clear whether he was including the five among the at least 21 civilian shooting victims.
Shauna Saxton was one of the terrified drivers who said she encountered the gunman during his rampage, during which multiple witnesses described gunfire near shopping plazas and in busy intersections.
Ms Saxton was driving with her husband and grandson in Odessa and had paused at traffic lights when they heard loud pops.
“I looked over my shoulder to the left and the gold car pulled up and the man was there and he had a very large gun and it was pointing at me,” she told TV station KOSA.
Ms Saxton said she was trapped because there were two cars in front of her.
“I started honking my horn. I started swerving and we got a little ahead of him and then for whatever reason the cars in front of me kind of parted,” she said sobbing.
She said she heard three more shots as she sped away.
Mr Gerke did not go into detail about the chase, but the cinema where the suspect was killed is more than 10 miles from where state troopers originally pulled over the gunman.
The shooting comes just four weeks after a gunman in the Texas border city of El Paso killed 22 people after opening fire at a Walmart.
Texas governor Greg Abbott this week held two meetings with lawmakers about how to prevent more mass shootings in Texas.
The shooting brings the number of mass killings in the US so far this year to 25, matching the number in all of 2018.