Texas shooting: seven killed, 21 wounded after gunman hijacks mail truck

At least seven people in the US were killed in a shooting after a man in West Texas opened fire and fled, shooting more than 20 people as he drove before being killed by police outside a movie theatre.

Police initially reported possible multiple shooters, but Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke later said there was only one male suspect in his 30s. 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 Texas state police tried pulling over a gold car mid-Saturday afternoon on Interstate 20 for failing to signal a left turn, a spokeswoman said.

Before the vehicle came to a complete stop, the driver “pointed a rifle toward the rear window of his car and fired several shots” toward the patrol car stopping him, said Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger.

The gunshots struck one of two officers 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. The condition of the three law enforcement officers injured was not immediately released.

Police chief Gerke said there were at least 21 civilian shooting victims. He said at least five people died. Gerke did not say whether the shooter was included among those five dead, and it was not clear whether he was including the five dead among the at least 21 civilian shooting victims.

The police chief did not go into detail about the chase, but the movie theatre where the suspect was killed is more than 16km (10 miles) from where state police originally pulled over the gunman.

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. Saxton was driving with her husband and grandson in Odessa and had paused at a stoplight 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.

Seven people remained in critical condition at one hospital hours after the West Texas shooting, said Russell Tippin, CEO of Medical Center Hospital in Odessa. He said a child under 2 years old was transported to another hospital. He also said one person the hospital had received had died. Tippin said 13 shooting victims were being treated at the hospital on Saturday.

Dustin Fawcett said he was sitting in his truck at a Starbucks in Odessa when he heard at least six gunshots ring out less than 46m (50 yards) 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.”

Fawcett, 28, an Odessa transport consultant, “got out to make sure everyone was safe” but found that no one had been struck by the gunfire nearby. He said a little girl was bleeding, but she hadn’t been shot, and that he later found out she was grazed in the face.

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. He said he would visit the area on Sunday.

The shooting on Saturday brings the number of mass killings in the US so far this year to 25, matching the number in all of 2018, according to a mass murder database. If it turns out the shooter is not among the five dead, the number of victims for this year has already reached 140, the level of all last year.

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”.

Pence said Trump had spoken to the attorney general and that the FBI was assisting local law enforcement.

Trump has offered contradictory messages in reacting to recent mass shootings. Days after the El Paso shooting he said he was eager to implement “very meaningful background checks” on guns and told reporters there was “tremendous support” for action. He later backed away, saying the current system of background checks was “very, very strong”.

Most recently, Trump has called for greater attention to mental health, saying that new facilities are needed for the mentally ill as a way to reduce mass shootings. However, some mental health professionals say such thinking is outdated, that linking mental illness to violence is wrong, and that the impact of more treatment would be helpful overall but would have a minor impact on gun violence.