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The suspect who allegedly shot and killed seven people over twenty during a Labor Day weekend massacre in western Texas appeared to have exploited a loophole in the federal regulations on the guns for procuring the RA-type assault rifle that he had used in the rampage, multiple sources of law enforcement said ABC News Tuesday.
36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator, killed by police, was able to get his hands on the gun by a private sale although he is considered a "prohibited person" prohibited by law from possessing a firearm because he had been diagnosed by a clinician as a mental patient, federal and local law enforcement sources said.
Under federal law, a gun salesman can not sell a gun if he knows that the buyer has been reported by law enforcement but does not have a gun. is not obliged to check his background or even ask the buyer to hold the weapon status.
Mark Rogers / American Odessa via AP
John Wester, special agent of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, confirmed that Ator had already failed a firearms background check.
"The background check was done with the help of the national system of instant criminal history checks, the NIC system worked, he asked for a firearm, and he was refused a weapon," Wester said. from a press conference Monday, but declined to say why Ator was rejected.
Sources later told ABC News that Ator had been rejected because he was mentally ill.
Ator was fired Saturday morning at the Journey Oilfield Service in Odessa, just hours before he started a kill and a few minutes before contacting the police to complain about his employer, said Odessa police chief Michael Gerke at the press conference. .
"Right after this dismissal, he called 911 from the Odessa Police Department, as did his employer," Gerke said. "And basically, they were complaining about each other because they had a disagreement over the dismissal."
During calls to the 911 Center and a subsequent call to the FBI's national phone line, Ator made no threat of violence, Gerke said.
City of Odessa / FBI via AP
Christopher Combs, special agent in charge of the FBI's outside office in San Antonio, described Ator's calls to law enforcement officials as "muddled and incoherent" gibberish from a person in "great mental distress." ". He added that Ator complained that the employer who dismissed him was holding him against his will.
"Frankly, the dispatchers, the call takers, could not understand what he was talking about," Combs said, adding that the FBI's phone line received 800,000 calls a year.
Combs said the investigators did not think his dismissal had prompted Ator to commit the massacre.
"He went to work in a very disturbed mental state, so it's not because he was fired," Combs said. "That did not happen because he was fired." When he came to work, he was already enraged.
"It was a long spiral down," said Combs. "He did not wake up on Saturday morning and did not get into his business, and then he came in. He came into this troubled company and he is probably in trouble for a while. "
The shooting took place at 3:15 pm. Local time Saturday, about 15 minutes after Ator called the FBI national line, said Combs.
The first victim of the bombing is a Texas Public Security Ministry soldier who called the suspect for failing to report before turning around, Gerke said. As the soldier approached the car, Ator allegedly opened fire with an AR-type assault rifle, injuring the soldier, he said.
Gerke said the soldier was not aware of Ator 's phone calls to law enforcement before returning the suspect.
Ator would then drive his vehicle by randomly shooting at victims in 20 different locations, including a car dealership and outside a movie theater, police said.
The victims killed were between 15 and 57 years old.
One of the victims was Mary Granado, a 29-year-old US postal service employee, whom Ator reportedly shot and killed during a car theft, Gerke said.
The suspect reportedly abandoned his car and stole the van from Granado's post office after he was killed, Gerke said. He continued driving in the Odessa region, shooting at random people, said the leader.
The alleged killer then quickly headed to the Cinergy Center, a local entertainment complex comprising a cineplex and a range of laser tags.
Gerke said the carnage could have been much worse if the police had not killed Ator before he entered a crowded movie theater.
A video taken on a mobile phone by a witness showed the suspect heading for a speeding police checkpoint outside the theater before a police officer in a marked SUV hit the mail van. stolen from the driver's side, turning it around and stopping. In a few seconds, the police opened fire on the van, killing the driver inside, Gerke said.
Gerke said the motive for the shooting might never be known because Ator is no longer alive to answer questions.
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