Seth Aaron Ator, the Odessa native who went on gun rampage on Saturday was working for Journey Oilfield Services and sacked on the same day that he went berserk, the police have confirmed.
Ator killed seven persons and wounded 22 others, including a 70-year-old woman and 17 month old baby that needed surgery.
The 70-year-old woman, was the latest victim to be known, Odessa Police chief Michael Gerke said on Monday. She was injured by shrapnel and was treated and released from a hospital.
Gerke outlined a timeline of the events leading up to the shooting, according to a report by Dallas News.
Gerke said the gunman, Ator, had gone to work Saturday morning at Journey Oilfield Services and was there for a short time before he was fired.
Afterward, he and his employer called 911 to report a disagreement over the termination, but Ator had left before Odessa officers arrived.
Authorities did not provide details about the disagreement and did not say how long Ator had worked for the company.
About 15 minutes before his encounter with troopers, the man called a national FBI tip line but did not make any threats, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Christopher Combs said Monday.
“It was, frankly, rambling statements about some of the atrocities he felt he had gone through,” Combs said.
The troopers were not actively looking for Ator’s car when he was pulled over, Gerke said.
The 36-year-old fired several shots toward a Texas Department of Public Safety vehicle, striking one trooper. He then continued shooting, at random as he drove between Midland and Odessa, authorities said.
At one point, Ator hijacked a mail van, killing the postal worker inside. Police later rammed the van with an SUV outside the Cinergy Movie Theatre in Odessa. The gunman then fired at police, wounding two officers before he was fatally shot.
Online court records show Ator was arrested in 2001 for a misdemeanour offence that would not have prevented him from legally purchasing firearms in Texas.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Ator was denied a gun after a background check was run through the National Instant Criminal Background Check system. Authorities have not said when or why the decision to deny Ator’s request was made.
Officials also have not said where he got the “AR-type weapon” he used Saturday.
Officials completed their search of Ator’s property Sunday, a “very strange residence” in Ector County, Combs said.
“The conditions reflect what his mental state was going into this,” said Combs, who did not elaborate on the state of the property. “He was on a long spiral of going down.”
The motive for the shooting remained unclear Monday, and Gerke said the reason may never be determined.
“The only way to determine that is if we could talk to him and we can’t,” he said.