Seven killed in drive-by shooting
THE death toll in a West Texas shooting rampage increased to seven yesterday as authorities investigated why a man stopped by state troopers for failing to signal a left turn opened fire on them and fled, shooting more than 20 people as he drove before being killed by officers outside a movie theatre.
Odessa police spokesperson Steve LeSueur said that at least one of those who was shot remained in a life-threatening condition.
Authorities said the gunman was a white male in his 30s but police have not released a name or possible motive.
The shooting began on Saturday afternoon with an interstate traffic stop where gunfire was exchanged with police, setting off a chaotic rampage during which the suspect hijacked a mail carrier truck and fired at random as he drove in the area of Odessa and Midland, two cities in the heart of Texas oil country, more than 483km west of Dallas.
Police initially reported possible multiple shooters, but Odessa police Chief Michael Gerke later said there was only one male suspect.
The suspect shot “at innocent civilians all over Odessa”, according to a statement from Odessa police.
The terrifying chain of events began when Texas state troopers tried pulling over a gold car on Saturday afternoon on Interstate 20 for failing to signal a left turn, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Katherine Cesinger said. Before the vehicle came to a stop, the driver “pointed a rifle toward the rear window of his car and fired several shots” toward the patrol car stopping him.
The gunshots struck one of two troopers inside the patrol car, Cesinger said, after which the gunman fled and continued shooting.
Two other police officers were shot before the suspect was killed. Authorities say the trooper was in serious but stable condition on Saturday, and the other officers were stable.
Gerke said there were at least 21 civilian shooting victims.
Shauna Saxton was driving with her husband and grandson in Odessa and had paused at a traffic light 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.
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.
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.
Dustin Fawcett, 28, said he was sitting in his truck at a Starbucks when he heard at least six gunshots ring out 46 metres behind him.
He spotted a white sedan with a passenger window that had been shattered. That’s when he thought “Oh man, this is a shooting.”
The Odessa transportation consultant “got out to make sure everyone was safe” but found that no one nearby had been struck by the gunfire. He said a little girl was bleeding, but she hadn’t been shot, and that he found out she was grazed in the face.
Vice-President Mike Pence said following the shooting that President Donald Trump and his administration “remain absolutely determined” to work with leaders in both parties in Congress to take such steps “so we can address and confront this scourge of mass atrocities in our country”. | THOUSANDS of people protested in cities and towns across Australia yesterday against the government’s efforts to deport a Tamil family back to Sri Lanka.
The asylum-seeking family of four, Priya, Nadesalingam and their Australian-born children Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, are being held at the remote Christmas Island detention centre while a last-minute appeal against their deportation is heard this week in a Melbourne court.
The family say they will face persecution as Tamils if they return to Sri Lanka. Greens leader Richard Di Natale accused the government of cruelty in deporting the family. “This is senseless cruelty, this is cruelty for the sake of being cruel,” he said at a rally.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said on Friday that the parents arrived illegally by boat and successive courts had ruled they did not qualify as refugees. |