Texas shooting: Gunman who killed seven in rampage ‘had just been sacked’

Seth Ator was reportedly fired from his lorry-driving job hours before the massacre
Texas Department of Public Safety
Michael Howie2 September 2019

The man who killed seven people and wounded 22 others in America’s latest gun rampage was reportedly fired from his lorry-driving job hours before the massacre.

Seth Ator, 36, began shooting indiscriminately on Saturday afternoon with AR-type rifle after Texas state troopers pulled him over in the town of Midland for failing to indicate.

Details of his victims emerged overnight as detectives continued to comb through 15 different crime scenes in Midland and the neighbouring town of Odessa.

The youngest killed was Leilah Hernandez, 15, who was shot as she walked out of a car dealership with her 18-year-old brother. Other victims included Joseph Griffith, 40, killed as he waited at a traffic light with his wife and two children.

Leilah Hernandez was the youngest to be killed
Facebook

The mayhem began when state troopers tried pulling over a gold car on Interstate 20 for failing to signal a left turn.

Before the vehicle came to a complete stop, the driver fired several shots through the rear window of his car, injuring an officer.

During the turmoil, Ator abandoned his car and hijacked a postal service truck, killing the driver Mary Granados, 29. Police eventually used a marked SUV to ram the mail truck outside the Cinergy Movie Theatre in Odessa, disabling the vehicle.

Mary Granados, 29, died when her postal truck was hijacked by Seth Ator

The gunman then fired at police, wounding two officers before he was killed. The New York Times reported that Ator had been fired from his job just hours before his rampage, citing officials.

Online court records showed Ator had convictions in 2002 for criminal trespass and evading arrest.

Hundreds of people last night gathered at a local university in the area known for its oil industry for a prayer vigil to grieve the loss of life.

“We’re out here in the middle of nowhere,” Midland Mayor Jerry Morales told the crowd. “All we’ve talked about is oil forever. And then this happens.” It was the second mass shooting in Texas in four weeks. On August 3, a gunman from the Dallas area killed 22 people at a Walmart store in El Paso, about 255 miles west of Midland. In a tweet, US President Donald Trump said he was being kept informed about the shootings.

Later, Vice-President Mike Pence said he and the Trump administration remained “absolutely determined to work with leaders in both parties in Congress to take steps that we can address and confront this scourge of mass atrocity in our country”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in