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 way, he killed a USPS worker and hijacked her mail truck, continuing the spree, officials said.
He made his last stand in the parking lot of an Odessa movie theater, where he was killed in a shootout with cops as horrified onlookers prayed for their lives.
Authorities are yet to identify a concrete motive behind the onslaught.
Texas mass shooter had record of criminal trespass and evading arrest
[Washington Examiner] 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 to be kept off of one’s record.
He also got a traffic citation in 2018 for a federal motor carrier safety violation while in Ector County, the same county in which Odessa is located.
According to ABC 25, Ator was from Lorena, Texas, a small city of about 1,500 people located in the Waco metropolitan area in the central-eastern part of the state. People who knew Ator said that he graduated from Lorena High School in 2001, a school that currently enrolls about 570 students. People in the area said they had lost touch with the Ator family over the past five years.
Ator’s parents divorced in 1987, and his mother and father now live in Amarillo and San Antonio respectively, according to Heavy. He reportedly has one sister, and his family has long roots in Texas.
Related: Neighbor of Texas gunman says he threatened her with rifle last month