5 dead, 21 hurt in Texas shooting

Attacker opened fire at random before he was shot dead by police

WASHINGTON - A gunman hijacked a US postal truck and opened fire at random in the US state of Texas on Saturday, shooting dead at least five people and wounding many others before dying in a shootout with officers.

Police identified the suspect as a white man in his mid-30s, but could not yet name him or say why he carried out the attack in the West Texas cities of Midland and Odessa.

Coming less than a month after a gunman killed 22 people in the Texas city of El Paso, the latest bloodshed immediately ignited fresh calls for gun control to stem the US scourge of mass shootings.

"We have at least 21 victims, 21 shooting victims and at least five deceased at this point in time," said Odessa city Police Chief Michael Gerke.

Three police officers were injured, he said.

The Odessa Police Department had earlier reported that a suspect was "driving around Odessa shooting at random people" and "just hijacked a US mail carrier truck".

Troopers had initially tried to pull over a passenger vehicle on the Interstate 20 highway but before it stopped, "the male driver (and only occupant in the vehicle) pointed a rifle toward the rear window of his car and fired several shots toward the DPS patrol unit," the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement.

One trooper was wounded, the suspect fled the scene, "and continued shooting innocent people", the department statement said.

Some of the shots were fired on the highway linking the cities of Odessa and Midland, where cars were left with bullet holes.

"I just found out a friend of mine passed away," David Turner, the mayor of Odessa, told Fox News.

"This coward pulls up beside" and opens fire on the car where the man and his family were waiting at a stop light, Turner said.

During his rampage, the suspect had switched vehicles by hijacking the postal van, and Gerke said he "would assume" the postal worker was among the victims.

Police said the suspect died during an exchange of fire with law enforcement at a movie theater in Odessa.

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.

US President Donald Trump tweeted that he had been briefed by Attorney General Bill Barr.

A day earlier, at least 10 people were injured in a shooting at a high school football game at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. A 17-year-old suspect was arrested on Saturday.

Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste said the shooting stemmed from a fight, and the suspect pulled a gun and started "indiscriminately shooting".

"This is a cowardly act by an individual who didn't know how to deal with a situation," Battiste said.

The latest incidents came after the early August mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart store, where many victims were Hispanic.

In that case, officers arrested Patrick Crusius, 21, a white Texan, who told police that he was targeting "Mexicans", according to an arrest warrant published by US media.

The tragedy in El Paso was committed on the basis of "racist" anti-Mexican rhetoric, Jesus Seade, Mexico's foreign ministry undersecretary for North America, said during a memorial after that shooting.

Critics of Trump have accused him of stoking such hatred.

The shooting in El Paso came hours before a gunman in Dayton, Ohio killed nine people, again reigniting calls for gun control in the country where firearms were linked to nearly 40,000 deaths in 2017.

"We need to end this epidemic," former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke reacted on Twitter after the latest killings.

O'Rourke, a Democratic presidential hopeful, expressed sympathy with "everyone in West Texas who has to endure this again".

Another Democratic contender, former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, appealed on Twitter to the Republican-controlled Senate "who refuse to move on gun reform."

"What is the number? How many Americans are you willing to sacrifice to the NRA?" NRA is the National Rife Association.

After a series of mass shootings since late July Trump had expressed provisional support for implementing universal background checks.

The president's position is crucial, because congressional Republicans, who count on gun rights supporters for votes, cannot move on tougher firearms legislation without his support.

Agencies

(China Daily 09/02/2019 page12)