A Texas shooter bought an assault weapon in private sale and escaped control

36 years old shooter who killed seven people and 22 wounded in Saturday's West Texas bought his RA-type rifle to a private seller, confirmed federal sources responsible for law enforcement at CBS News. The purchase allowed the shooter to avoid a federal background check. Sources also said that the armed man had already been denied the purchase of a firearm because he was determined not to be able to feed himself mentally.

The investigation on who sold the weapon is underway. Authorities said that the gunman was killed by police officers in front of a busy cinema in Odessa. It was at least the 38th massacre this year.

The online court records show that the armed man, identified as Seth Aaron Ator, was arrested in 2001 for a crime offense that would not have prevented him from legally buying firearms at Texas. The federal law defines nine categories that would legally prevent a person from owning a firearm, including: to be found guilty of a crime, an indictment of domestic violence offense, to be considered a "mental defect" or be incarcerated in a psychiatric facility, be the subject of a restrictive order or having an active warrant. The authorities indicated that Ator had no warrants outstanding at the time of the shooting.

The FBI special agent, Christopher Combs, said that Ator "was on a long spiral" before the shooting the day he was fired from his trucker job. He went to work that day "in trouble," said Combs. He added that the place where the shooter lived was "a strange residence" and that this state reflected "the mental state of his mental state".

Combs said Monday that Ator had telephoned the agency's phone line and the local police dispatch after being fired from Journey Oilfield Services, making "incoherent statements about some of the atrocities." that he felt he had suffered ".

"He did not wake up on Saturday morning and did not get into his business, and then he came in. He went to this troubled company," Ator said.

Fifteen minutes after the FBI call, Combs said, a Texas state soldier ignoring calls to authorities attempted to stop Ator for not reporting any lane changes. It was then that Ator pointed an anti-radar rifle at the rear window of his car and opened fire on the soldier. The police then launched a terrifying pursuit as Ator fired bullets at passing cars, shops and killed a US Postal Service employee while diverting his mail truck. .

The attack of the day during Labor Day weekend took place a few weeks after the other mass shooting killed 22 people in the border town of El Paso Texas.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on Twitter that "we must keep gun from criminals" – words similar to those he kept following the August 3 shooting in El Paso , when he said that guns should be preserved from "crazy killers". But Abbott, a Republican and a staunch advocate for gun rights, did not take risks tightening gun laws in Texas.

Odessa police chief Michael Gerke said Ator had also called 911 on Saturday after Ator's dismissal, but that Ator had already taken off before the police arrived.

"Basically, they were complaining because they disagreed about the dismissal," Gerke said.

The authorities stated that they were unable to provide an exact timeline for the shooting, including the time elapsed between the roadblocks at 15:13. and the police kill Ator in the cinema.

Jeff Pegues contributed to this report.