Active Shooter Killed by Police, 'Multiple Gunshot Victims' Reported In Odessa and Midland, Texas

Five people were killed and 21 more injured in a mass shooting in and around the cities of Odessa and Midland, Texas, Saturday afternoon.Police confirmed that the shooter, a white man in his mid-30s, was killed by officers at the Cinergy movie theater in Odessa.Among the victims are a student at Ector County Independent School District, who was killed, and a 17-month-old girl, who was wounded and flown to Lubbock for treatment.The shootings sent the two neighboring west Texas cities into chaos as police hunted for the gunman. They later clarified that there was only one gunman and that he is dead.Here’s what we know so far.Odessa Police Chief Mike Gerke said that the incident began when the suspect was pulled over for a traffic stop by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper about 3:15 p.m. Central Time. They are about 240 miles east of El Paso, where a gunman targeting Hispanic victims killed 22 people at a Walmart on Aug. 3.“This was a joint effort by a multitude of departments to find this animal and bring him to justice,” Gerke said at a later press conference.The shooter has not yet been identified, although Gerke said that he is a white man in his mid-30s.The El Paso branch of the FBI said that “it is too soon to know motive or the identity of the suspect.”Police had initially said the shooter or shooters were believed to be shooting people from two separate vehicles — a hijacked U.S. Postal Service van and a small “gold/white” Toyota truck, according to the Midland Police Department.