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The shooter Seth Ator had been calling the FBI and police “for years” and “leaving incoherent messages” before the mass shooting.

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — The gunman in a spate of violence after a routine traffic stop in West Texas had just been fired from his job and called both police and the FBI before the shooting began, authorities said Monday. Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke said 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator had been fired Saturday from Journey Oilfield Services. He said both Ator and the company called 911 after the firing but that Ator was gone by the time police showed up. FBI special agent Christopher Combs says Ator’s statements on the phone were “rambling.” Authorities said Ator killed seven people...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Monday that the suspected gunman who killed at least seven people and injured 22 others in a shooting over the weekend had failed a gun background check. “Not only did the gunman have a criminal history … he also previously failed a gun purchase background check in Texas,” Abbott tweeted, “& he didn’t go thru a background check for the gun he used in Odessa. We must keep guns out of criminals’ hands.” It is unclear how the gunman, identified Sunday as 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator, obtained the AR-style rifle he used when he...

FBI special agent Christopher Combs said Ator called the agency’s tip line...making “rambling statements about some of the atrocities that he felt that he had gone through.” “He was on a long spiral of going down,” Combs said. “He didn’t wake up Saturday morning and walk into his company and then it happened. He went to that company in trouble.” ...Ator had previously failed a federal background check for a firearm, said John Wester, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Wester did not say when Ator failed the background check or why.

The man who killed seven people in Odessa, Texas, over the weekend had been fired from his trucking job hours before the mass shooting, according to multiple reports. The gunman, identified Sunday as Seth Aaron Ator, lead officials on a high speed chase during which he indiscriminately fired on motorists and police officers. Ator was killed after being chased by officers. The New York Times first reported that Ator had been fired from his trucking job in Odessa. ADVERTISEMENT He was pulled over Saturday by state troopers for failing to use a turn single before beginning firing, according to police....

A neighbor of the Odessa mass shooter says she reported him to police last month — after he threatened her with a rifle for leaving trash near his property — but cops couldn’t find his house on account of it having no GPS address or electricity. The woman told CNN that Seth Ator, 36, would often sit on top of his home and shoot animals at night, which he would then go and retrieve afterwards. SNIP Ator would often sit and sleep inside his Toyota Camry with the heat on when the weather would get to cold, the woman said....

Details are beginning to emerge about the gunman who killed seven and injured at least 19 others during a shooting rampage in Odessa and Midland, Texas on Saturday. The suspect, identified as 36-year-old Seth Ator, had a criminal record dating back to his teenage years. In 2002, Ator pleaded guilty to criminal trespassing and evading arrest, both misdemeanors in Texas. He avoided jail time but received two years of probation according to public records, which indicate the crimes took place in McLennan County. Adjudication was deferred in the case, which can be granted to first-time offenders and allows a conviction...

Like an adolescent seeking attention, Beto O'Rourke, desperate for any hook to hoist his pitiful polling position, has resorted to puerile vulgarity. O'Rourke has glommed onto the issue of mass shootings as his last, best shot to salvage his drain-circling candidacy. O'Rourke was a guest on CNN's State of the Union this morning. Guest host Dana Bash began by playing a clip in which O'Rourke, addressing a campaign gathering yesterday regarding the shootings in Texas, called the situation "f---ed up." CNN bleeped out the vulgarity. But when Bash invited O'Rourke to comment on the situation live in the studio, he...

Why the delay in providing the public with information we have a right to know? The nation’s latest mass shooting — this time in Odessa, Texas — left at least five people dead and at least 21 others injured, including a police officer who was shot, on Saturday afternoon. In the ensuing hours after responding law enforcement said they killed the shooter, the demand to know the identity of the gunman grew louder across the internet.

<p>Seth Ator has been identified as the accused gunman who was shot and killed by police after a rampage in Odessa and Midland, Texas, according to the Odessa Police Department. Police said the shooter was taken down by officers at the Cinergy movie complex in Odessa. The incident began around 3:15 p.m. local time on Saturday, August 31, as an attempted traffic stop along Interstate 20.</p>

The assault rifle-toting madman who killed seven people and wounded more than 20 others in a roving Texas spree was identified Sunday as Seth Ator. Ator, a 36-year-old resident of Odessa, Texas, was first named as the assailant by CBS News, citing law-enforcement sources.When his gold Toyota pick-up truck was pulled over for a minor signaling infraction along a stretch of I-20 near Midland, Texas, on Saturday, Ator blasted approaching state troopers, seriously wounding one, authorities have said.He then peeled off, firing indiscriminately with his AR-style rifle out of the truck as he floored it towards Odessa, authorities said.Along the...

Officials refused to say the name of the gunman involved in the west Texas shooting out loud during a press conference Sunday. Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke began the update by noting that the investigation into the shooting that left seven dead and 22 injured is still active and ongoing. “There are still multiple crime scenes that are being worked. There are no definitive answers as to motive or reasons at this point. But we are fairly certain that the subject did act alone,” Gerke, who was accompanied by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. “You’ll notice that I’m not naming...